LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

----- ®nmW ¥ *.- 



UNITE I) STATES OF AMERICA. 




FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL 



KEPT FOR 



THE MASTER'S USE. 



BY / 

FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL. } 




'Thou shalt abide for Me.' — Hose a iii. 3. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

HENRY ALTEMUS. 
1895. 

K 



•H49 



Ths Library 
op Congress 

WASHINGTON 



J 



Copyrighted i8 9 S,by Henry Altemus. 



/Z-SYfrX 



HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



CONTENTS. 



i. Our Lives kept for Jesus, 
II. Our Moments kept for Jesus, 
in. Our Hands kept for Jesus, , 
iv. Our Feet kept for Jesus, 
v. Our Voices kept for Jesus, . 
VI, Our Lips kept for Jesus, 
vii. Our Silver and Gold kept for Jesus, 
viii. Our Intellects kept for Jesus, 
ix. Our Wills kept for Jesus, 
x. Our Hearts kept for Jesus, 
XI. Our Love kept for Jesus, 
xii. Our Selves kept for Jesus, 
xm. Christ for us, 



9 
26 

34 
46 

51 

66 

79 
9i 
96 
104 
109. 
115 
122 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



My beloved sister Frances finished revising the 
proofs of this book shortly before her death on 
Whit Tuesday, June 3, 1879, but its publication 
was to be deferred till the Autumn. 

In appreciation of the deep and general sympa- 
thy flowing in to her relatives, they wish that its 
publication should not be withheld. Knowing her 
intense desire that Christ should be magnified, 
whether by her life or in her death, may it be to 
His glory that in these pages she, being dead, 
1 Yet speaketh ! ' 

MARIA V. G. HAVERGAL. 

Oakhampton, Worcestershire, 



KEPT 

FOR 



Take my life, and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. 

Take my moments and my days ; 
Let them flow in ceaseless praise. 

Take my hands, and let them move 
At the impulse of Thy love. 

Take my feet, and let them be 
Swift and < beautiful ' for Thee. 

Take my voice, and let me sing 
Always, only, for my King. 

Take my lips, and let them be 
Filled with messages from Thee. 

Take my silver and my gold ; 
Not a mite would I withhold. 

Take my intellect, and use 

Every power as Thou shalt choose. 

Take my will and make it Thine ; 
It shall be no longer mine. 

Take my heart ; it is Thine own ; 
It shall be Thy royal throne. 

Take my love ; my Lord, I pour 
At Thy feet its treasure-store. 

Take myself, and I will be 
Ever, only, all for Thee. 



CHAPTER I. 



©ur Xlves kept for 3esu0. 

* Keep my life, that it may be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee? 

TVif ANY a heart has echoed the little song : 

' Take my life, and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee ! ' 

And yet those echoes have not been, in every case 
and at all times, so clear, and full, and firm, so 
continuously glad as we would wish, and perhaps 
expected. Some of us have said : 

* I launch me forth upon a sea 

Of boundless love ancLtenderness; \ 

and after a little we have found, or fancied, that 
there is a hidden leak in our barque, and though we 
are doubtless still afloat, yet we are not sailing with 
the same free, exultant confidence as at first. What 
is it that has dulled and weakened the echo of our 
consecration song ? what is the little leak that hin- 
ders the swift and buoyant course of our conse- 
crated life ? Holy Father, let Thy loving spirit 



io iftept for tbe /toaster's TUse. 

guide the hand that writes, and strengthen the heart 
of every one who reads what shall be written, for 
Jesus' sake. 

While many a sorrowfully-varied answer to these 
questions may, and probably will, arise from touched 
and sensitive consciences, each being shown by 
God's faithful Spirit the special sin, the special 
yielding to temptation which has hindered and 
spoiled the blessed life which they sought to enter 
and enjoy, it seems to me that one or other of two 
things has lain at the outset of the failure and dis- 
appointment. 

First, it may have arisen from want of the sim- 
plest belief in the simplest fact, as well as want of 
trust in one of the simplest and plainest words our 
gracious Master ever uttered ! The unbelieved fact 
being simply that He hears us ; the untrusted word 
being one of those plain, broad foundation-stones 
on which we rested our whole weight, it may be 
many years ago, and which we had no idea we ever 
doubted, or were in any danger of doubting now, — 
' Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast 
out.' 

' Take my life !' We have said it or sung it be- 
fore the Lord, it may be many times ; but if it were 
only once whispered in His ear with full purpose of 
heart, should we not believe that He heard it ? 
And if we know that He heard it, should we not 
believe that He has answered it, and fulfilled this, 
our heart's desire? For with Him hearing means 
heeding. Then why should we doubt that He did 
verily take our lives when we offered them — our 



©ur %ivce fcept for Jesus* u 

bodies when we presented them ? Have we not 
been wronging His faithfulness all this time by 
practically, even if unconsciously, doubting whether 
the prayer ever really reached Him ? And if so, is it 
any wonder that we have not realized all the power 
and joy of full consecration ? By some means or other 
He has to teach us to trust implicitly at every step 
of the way. And so, if we did not really trust in 
this matter, He has had to let us find out our want 
of trust by withholding the sensible part of the 
blessing, and thus stirring us up to find out why it 
is withheld. 

An offered gift must be either accepted or re- 
fused. Can He have refused it when He has said, 
' Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out'? 
If not, then it must have been accepted. It is just 
the same process as when we came to Him first of 
all, with the intolerable burden of our sins. There 
was no help for it but to come with them to Him, 
and take His word for it that He would not and did 
not cast us out. And so coming, so believing, we 
found rest to our souls ; we found that His word 
was true, and that His taking away our sins was 
a reality. 

Some give their lives to Him then and there, and 
go forth to live thenceforth not at all unto them- 
selves, but unto Him who died for them. This is 
as it should be, for conversion and consecration 
ought to be simultaneous. But practically it is not 
very often so, except with those in whom the bring- 
ing out of darkness into marvellous light has been 
sudden and dazzling, and full of deepest contrasts. 
More frequently the work resembles the case of the 



12 -Rept tor tbe Master's THee* 

Hebrew servant described in Exodus xxi., who, 
after six years' experience of a good master's ser- 
vice, dedicates himself voluntarily, unreservedly, 
and irrevocably to it, saying, ' I love my master ; I 
will not go out free ; ' the master then accepting and 
sealing him to a life-long service, free in law, yet 
bound in love. This seems to be a figure of later 
consecration founded on experience and love. 

And yet, as at our first coming, it is less than 
nothing, worse than nothing that we have to bring; 
for our lives, even our redeemed and pardoned lives, 
are not only weak and worthless, but defiled and 
sinful. But thanks be to God for the Altar that 
sanctifieth the gift, even our Lord Jesus Christ 
Himself! By Him we draw nigh unto God; to 
Him, as one with the Father, we offer our living 
sacrifice ; in Him, as the Beloved of the Father, we 
know it is accepted. So, dear friends, when once 
He has wrought in us the desire to be altogether 
His own, and put into our hearts the prayer, ' Take 
my life,' let us go on our way rejoicing, believing 
that He has taken our lives, our hands, our feet, our 
voices, our intellects, our wills, our whole selves, to 
be ever, only, all for Him. Let us consider that a 
blessedly settled thing; not because of anything we 
have felt, or said, or done, but because we know 
that He heareth us, and because we know that He 
is true to His word. 

But suppose our hearts do not condemn us in 
this matter, our disappointment may arise from an- 
other cause. It may be that we have not received, 
because we have not asked a fuller and further 



©ur %ivce kept for 5e$\\B. 13 

blessing. Suppose that we did believe, thankfully 
and surely, that the Lord heard our prayer, and that 
He did indeed answer and accept us, and set us apart 
for Himself; and yet we find that our consecration 
was not merely miserably incomplete, but that we 
have drifted back again almost to where we were 
before. Or suppose things are not quite so bad as 
that, still we have not quite all we expected ; and 
even if we think we can truly say/O God, my heart 
is fixed/ we find that, to our daily sorrow, some- 
how or other the details of our conduct do not 
seem to be fixed, something or other is perpetually 
slipping through, till we get perplexed and dis- 
tressed. Then we are tempted to wonder whether 
after all there was not some mistake about it, and 
the Lord did not really take us at our word, al- 
though we took Him at His word. And then the 
struggle with one doubt, and entanglement, and 
temptation only seems to land us in another. What 
is to be done then ? 

First, I think, very humbly and utterly honestly 
to search and try our ways before our God, or 
rather, as we shall soon realize our helplessness to 
make such a search, ask Him to do it for us, pray- 
ing for His promised Spirit to show us unmistak- 
ably if there is any secret thing with us that is hin- 
dering both the inflow and outflow of His grace to 
us and through us. Do not let us shrink from 
some unexpected flash into a dark corner ; do not 
let us wince at the sudden touching of a hidden 
plague-spot. The Lord always does His own work 
thoroughly if we will only let Him do it ; if we put 
our case into His hands, He will search and probe 



14 "Kept for tbe /toaster's TZlse* 

fully and firmly, though very tenderly. Very pain- 
fully, it may be, but only that He may do the very 
thing we want, — cleanse us and heal us thoroughly, 
so that we may set off to walk in real newness of 
life. But if we do not put it unreservedly into His 
hands, it will be no use thinking or talking about 
our lives being consecrated to Him. The heart that 
is not entrusted to Him for searching, will not be 
undertaken by Him for cleansing ; the life that 
fears to come to the light lest any deed should be 
reproved, can never know the blessedness and the 
privileges of walking in the light. 

But what then ? When He has graciously again 
put a new song in our mouth, and we are singing, 

1 Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, 
Who like me His praise should siDg ? ■ 

and again with fresh earnestness we are saying, 

* Take my life, and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee ! ' 

are we only to look forward to the same disappoint- 
ing experience over again? are we always to stand 
at the threshold ? Consecration is not so much a 
step as a course ; not so much an act, as a position 
to which a course of action inseparably belongs. 
In so far as it is a course and a position, there must 
naturally be a definite entrance upon it, and a time, 
it may be a moment, when that entrance is made. 
That is when we say, ' Take '; but we do not want 
to go on taking a first step over and over again. 



Out Xtves feept tor Jesus. 15 

What we want now is to be maintained in that po- 
sition, and to fufil that course. So let us go on to 
another prayer. Having already said, ' Take my 
life, for I cannot give it to Thee/ let us now say, 
with deepened conviction, that without Christ we 
really can do nothing, — 'Keep my life, for I cannot 
keep it for Thee/ 

Let us ask this with the same simple trust to 
which, in so many other things, He has so liberally 
and graciously responded. For this is the confi- 
dence that we have in Him, that if we ask any- 
thing according to His will, He heareth u.s ; and if 
we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we 
know that we have the petitions that we desired of 
Him. There can be no doubt that this petition is 
according to His will, because it is based upon 
many a promise. May I give it to you just as it 
floats through my own mind again and again, know- 
ing whom I have believed, and being persuaded that 
He is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
Him? 

Keep my life, that it may be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. 

Keep my moments and my days ; 
Let them flow in ceaseless praise. 

Keep my hands, that they may move 
At the impulse of Thy love. 

Keep my feet, that they may be 
Swift and * beautiful ' for Thee. 

Keep my voice, that I may sing 
Always, only, for my King. 



1 6 ikept for tbe /Hbaster'a TUse* 

Keep my lips, that they may be 
Filled with messages from Thee. 

Keep my silver and my gold ; 
Not a mite would I withhold. 

Keep my intellect, and use 

Every power as Thou shalt choose. 

Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine ! 
For it is no longer mine. 

Keep my heart ; it is Thine own ; 
It is now Thy royal throne. 

Keep my love ; my Lord, I pour 
At Thy feet its treasure-store. 

Keep myself, that I may be 
Ever, only, all for Thee. 

Yes ! He who is able and willing to take unto 
Himself, is no less able and willing to keep for 
Himself. Our willing offering has been made by 
His enabling grace, and this our King has * seen 
with joy. ' And now we pray, ' Keep this for ever 
in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of 
Thy people' (i Chron. xxix. 17, 18). 

This blessed 'taking,' once for all, which we 
may quietly believe as an accomplished fact, fol- 
lowed by the continual 'keeping,' for which He 
will be continually inquired of by us, seems analo- 
gous to the great washing by which we have part 
in Christ, and the repeated washing of the feet for 
which we need to be continually coming to Him. 
For with the deepest and sweetest consciousness 



©ur Hives kept tor 3esus. 17 

that He has indeed taken our lives to be His very 
own, the need of His active and actual keeping of 
them in every detail and at every moment is most 
fully realized. But then we have the promise of 
our faithful God, ' I the Lord do keep it, I will 
keep it night and day. ' The only question is, will 
we trust this promise, or will we not ? If we do, we 
shall find it come true. If not, of course it will 
not be realized. For unclaimed promises are like 
uncashed cheques; they will keep us from bank- 
ruptcy, but not from want. But if not, why not ? 
What right have we to pick out one of His faithful 
sayings, and say we don't expect Him to fulfil 
that? What defence can we bring, what excuse can 
we invent, for so doing ? 

If you appeal to experience against His faithful- 
ness to His word, I will appeal to experience too, 
and ask you, did you ever really trust Jesus to ful- 
fil any word of His to you, and find your trust 
deceived ? As to the past experience of the details 
of your life not being kept for Jesus, look a little 
more closely at it, and you will find that though you 
may have asked, you did not trust. Whatever you 
did really trust Him to keep, He has kept, and the 
unkept things were never really entrusted. Scruti- 
nize this past experience as you will, and it will 
only bear witness against your unfaithfulness, never 
against His absolute faithfulness. 

Yet this witness must not be unheeded. We 
must not forget the things that are behind till they 
are confessed and forgiven. Let us now bring all 
this unsatisfactory past experience, and, most of all, 
the want of trust which has been the poison-spring 



is fccpt for tbc barter's "Use. 

of its course, to the precious blood of Christ, which 
cleanseth us, even us. from all sin, even this sin. 
Perhaps we never saw that we were not trusting 
Jesus as He deserves to be trusted ; i( so, let us 
wonderingly hate ourselves the more that we could 
be so trustless to such a Saviour, and so sinfully 
dark and stupid that we did not even see it. And 
oh, let us wonderingly love Him the more that He 
has been so patient and gentle with us, upbraiding 
not. though in our slow-hearted foolishness we have 
been grieving Him by this subtle unbelief, and 
then, by His grace, may we enter upon a new era 
of experience, our lives kept for Him more fully 
than ever before, because we trust Him more simply 
and unreservedly to keep them ! 

Here we must face a question, and perhaps a dif- 
ficulty. Does it not almost seem as if we were at 
this point led to trusting to our trust, making every- 
thing hinge upon it, and thereby only removing a 
subtle dependence upon ourselves one step farther 
back, disguising instead of renouncing it ? If 
Christ's keeping depends upon our trusting, and 
our continuing to trust depends upon ourselves, we 
^re in no better or safer position than before, and 
shall only be landed in a fresh series of disappoint- 
ments. The old story, something for the sinner to 
do, crops up again here, only with the ground 
shifted from ' works ' to trust. Said a friend to me, 
1 I see now ! I did trust Jesus to do everything 
else for me, but I thought that this trusting was 
something that / had got to do.' And so, of 
course, what she ' had got to do ' had been a 



Our %ivc& kept tor ^csus* 



19 



perpetual effort and frequent failure. We can no 
more trust and keep on trusting than we can do 
anything else of ourselves. Even in this it must 
be ' Jesus only '; we are not to look to Him only to 
be the Author and Finisher of our faith, but we are 
to look to Him for all the intermediate fulfilment 
of the work of faith (2 Thess. i. 11) ; we must ask 
Him to go on fulfilling it in us, committing even 
this to His power. 

For we both may and must 
Commit our very faith to Him, 
Entrust to Him our trust. 

What a long time it takes us to come down to the 
conviction, and still more to the realization of the 
fact that without Him we can do nothing, but that 
He must work all our works in us ! This is the 
work of God, that ye believe in Him whom He has 
sent. And no less must it be the work of God that 
we go on believing, and that we go on trusting. 
Then, dear friends, who are longing to trust Him 
with unbroken and unwavering trust, cease the 
effort and drop the burden, and now entrust your 
trust to Him ! He is just as well able to keep that 
as any other part of the complex lives which we 
want Him to take and keep for Himself. And oh, 
do not pass on content with the thought, 'Yes, 
that is a good idea ; perhaps I should find that a 
great help!' But, ' Now, then, doit.* It is no 
help to the sailor to see a flash of light across a 
dark sea, if he does not instantly steer accordingly. 

Consecration is not a religiously selfish thing. If 
it sinks into that, it ceases to be consecration. We 



20 ifcept for the /toaster's TSise. 

want our lives kept, not that we may feel happy, 
and be saved the distress consequent on wandering, 
and get the power with God and man, and all the 
other privileges linked with it. We shall have all 
this, because the lower is included in the higher ; 
but our true aim, if the love of Christ constraineth 
us, will be far beyond this. Not for 'me' at all but 
1 for Jesus ' ; not for my safety, but for His glory ; 
not for my comfort, but for His joy ; not that I may 
find rest, but that He may see the travail of His soul, 
and be satisfied ! Yes, for Him I want to be kept. 
Kept for His sake ; kept for His use ; kept to be His 
witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in 
me He may show forth some tiny sparkle of His 
light and beauty; kept to do His will and His work in 
His own way ; kept, it may be, to suffer for His sake ; 
kept for Him, that He may do just what seemeth 
Him good with me ; kept, so that no other lord 
shall have any more dominion over me, but that 
Jesus shall have all there is to have ; — little enough, 
indeed, but not divided or diminished by any other 
claim. Is not this, O you who love the Lord — is 
not this worth living for, worth asking for, worth 
trusting for? 

This is consecration, and I cannot tell you the 
blessedness of it. It is not the least use arguing 
with one who has had but a taste of its blessedness, 
and saying to him, ' How can these things be? ' It 
is not the least use starting all sorts of difficulties 
and theoretical suppositions about it with such a 
one, any more than it was when the Jews argued 
with the man who said, ' One thing I know, that 
whereas I was blind, now I see/ The Lord Jesus 



©ur Xtves ftept for Jesus* 21 

does take the life that is offered to Him, and He 
does keep the life for Himself that is entrusted to 
Him ; but until the life is offered we cannot know 
the taking, and until the life is entrusted we cannot 
know or understand the keeping. All we can do is 
to say, ' O taste and see ! ' and bear witness to the 
reality of Jesus Christ, and set to our seal that we 
have found Him true to His every word, and that 
we have proved Him able even to do exceeding 
abundantly above all we asked or thought. Why 
should we hesitate to bear this testimony? We 
have done nothing at all; we have, in all our 
efforts, only proved to ourselves, and perhaps to 
others, that we had no power either to give or keep 
our lives. Why should we not, then, glorify His 
grace by acknowledging that we have found Him so 
wonderfully and tenderly gracious and faithful in 
both taking and keeping as we never supposed or 
imagined ? I shall never forget the smile and em- 
phasis with which a poor working man bore this 
witness to his Lord. I said to him, l Well, H., we 
have .a good Master, have we not?' 'Ah/ said he, 
' a deal better than ever /thought ! ' That summed 
up his experience, and so it will sum up the experi- 
ence of every one who will but yield their lives 
wholly to the same good Master. 

I cannot close this chapter without a word with 
those, especially my younger friends, who, although 
they have named the name of Christ, are saying, 
1 Yes, this is all very well for some people, or for 
older people, but I am not ready for it ; I can't say 
I see my way to this sort of thing.' I am going to 



22 ikept tor tbe /toaster's TUse* 

take the lowest ground for a minute, and appeal to 
your ' past experience.' Are you satisfied with 
your experience of the other < sort of thing ' ? Your 
pleasant pursuits, your harmless recreations, your 
nice occupations, even your improving ones, what 
fruit are you having from them ? Your social inter- 
course, your daily talks and walks, your investments 
of all the time that remains to you over and above 
the absolute duties God may have given you, what 
fruit that shall remain have you from all this ? Day 
after day passes on, and year after year, and what 
shall the harvest be ? What is even the present re- 
turn ? Are you getting any real and lasting satis- 
faction out of it all? Are you not finding that 
things lose their flavour, and that you are spending 
your strength day after day for nought ? that you 
are no more satisfied than you were a year ago — 
rather less so, if anything? Does not a sense of 
hollowness and weariness come over you as you go 
on in the same round, perpetually getting through 
things only to begin again ? It cannot be other- 
wise. Over even the freshest and purest earthly 
fountains the Hand that never makes a mistake has 
written, ' He that drinketh of this water shall thirst 
again.' Look into your own heart and you will 
find a copy of that inscription already traced, 
1 Shall thirst again. ' And the characters are being 
deepened with every attempt to quench the inevi- 
table thirst and weariness in life, which can only be 
satisfied and rested in full consecration to God. 
For ' Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart 
never resteth till it findeth rest in Thee.' To-day 
I tell you of a brighter and happier life, whose in- 



©ur %xvcb ftept for Jesus* 23 

scription is, 'Shall never thirst '/ — a life that is no 
dull round-and-round in a circle of unsatisfactori- 
nesses, but a life that has found its true and en- 
tirely satisfactory centre, and set itself towards a 
shining and entirely satisfactory goal, whose bright- 
ness is cast over every step of the way. Will you 
not seek it ? 

Do not shrink, and suspect, and hang back from 
what it may involve, with selfish and unconfiding 
and ungenerous half-heartedness. Take the word 
of any who have willingly offered themselves unto 
the Lord, that the life of consecration is ' a deal 
better than they thought !' Choose this day whom 
you will serve with real, thorough-going, whole- 
hearted service, and He will receive you ; and you 
will find, as we have found, that He is such a good 
Master that you are satisfied with His goodness, 
and that you will never want to go out free. Nay, 
rather take His own word for it ; see what He says : 
1 If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their 
days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.' 
You cannot possibly understand that till you are 
really in His service ! For He does not give, nor 
even show, His wages before you enter it. And He 
says, ' My servants shall sing for joy of heart.' But 
you cannot try over that song to see what it is like, 
you cannot even read one bar of it, till your nomi- 
nal or even promised service is exchanged for real 
and undivided consecration. But when He can 
call you ' My servant,' then you will find yourself 
singing for joy of heart, because He says you shall. 

'And who, then, is willing to consecrate his ser- 
vice this day unto the Lord ?' 



24 IRept tor tbe /l&aster's Tflse. 

1 Do not startle at the term, or think, because 
you do not understand all it may include, you are 
therefore not qualified for it. I dare say it com- 
prehends a great deal more than either you or I 
understand, but we can both enter into the spirit of 
it, and the detail will unfold itself as long as our 
probation shall last. Christ demands a hearty con- 
secration in will, and He will teach us what that 
involves in act. ' 

This explains the paradox that ' fall consecration ' 
may be in one sense the act of a moment, and in 
another the work of a lifetime. It must be com- 
plete to be real, and yet if real, it is always incom- 
plete ; a point of rest, and yet a perpetual progres- 
sion. 

Suppose you make over a piece of ground to 
another person. You give it up, then and there, 
entirely to that other ; it is no longer in your own 
possession ; you no longer dig and sow, plant and 
reap, at your discretion or for your own profit. His 
occupation of it is total \ no other has any right to 
an inch of it ; it is his affair thenceforth what crops 
to arrange for and how to make the most of it. But 
his practical occupation of it may not appear all at 
once. There may be waste land which he will take 
into full cultivation only by degrees, space wasted 
for want of draining or by over fencing, and odd 
corners lost for want of enclosing ; fields yielding 
smaller returns than they might because of hedge- 
rows too wide and shady, and trees too many and 
spreading, and strips of good soil trampled into 
uselessness for want of defined pathways. 

Just so is it with our lives. The transaction of, 



<S>ur %ivc5 kept tor Jesus* 25 

so to speak, making them over to God is definite 
and complete. But then begins the practical de- 
velopment of consecration. And here He leads on 
' softly, according as the children be able to en- 
dure.' I do not suppose any one sees anything like 
all that it involves at the outset. We have not 
a notion what an amount of waste of power there 
has been in our lives ; we never measured out the 
odd corners and the undrained bits, and it never 
occurred to us what good fruit might be grown in 
our straggling hedgerows, nor how the shade of our 
trees has been keeping the sun from the scanty 
crops. And so, season by season, we shall be some- 
times not a little startled, yet always very glad, as 
we find that bit by bit the Master shows how much 
more may be made of our ground, how much more 
He is able to make of it than we did ; and we shall 
be willing to work under Him and do exactly what 
He points out, even if it comes to cutting down a 
shady tree, or clearing out a ditch full of pretty 
weeds and wild-flowers. 

As the seasons pass on, it will seem as if there 
was always more and more to be done; the very 
fact that He is constantly showing us something 
more to be done in it, proving that it is really His 
ground. Only let Him have the ground, no matter 
how poor or overgrown the soil may be, and then 
' He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her 
desert like the garden of the Lord.' Yes, even 
our l desert ' ! And then we shall sing, l My be- 
loved has gone down into His garden, to the 
beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to 
gather lilies.' 



26 Ikept tor tbe Master's mse. 

Made for Thyself, O God ! 
Made for Thy love, Thy service, Thy delight; 
Made to show forth Thy wisdom, grace, and might; 
Made for Thy praise, whom veiled archangels laud: 
Oh, strange and glorious thought, that we may be 

A joy to Thee ! 

Yet the heart turns away 
From this grand destiny of bliss, and deems 
'Twas made for its poor self, for passing dreams, 
Chasing illusions melting day by day, 
Till for ourselves we read on this world's best, 

' This is not rest ! ' 



CHAPTER II. 



©ur flDoments kept for 3e9us. 

'Keep ??iy moments and my days ; 
Let them flow in ceaseless praise? 

IT may be a little help to writer and reader if we 
consider some of the practical details of the life 
which we desire to have ' kept for Jesus ' in the 
order of the little hymn at the beginning of this 
book, with the one word 'take' changed to 'keep.' 
So we will take a couplet for each chapter. 

The first point that naturally comes up is that 
which is almost synonymous with life — our time. 
And this brings us at once face to face with one of 
our past difficulties, and its probable cause. 



©ur Moments kept tor Seem. 27 

When we take a wide sweep, we are so apt to 
be vague. When we are aiming at generalities 
we do not hit the practicalities. We forget that 
faithfulness to principle is only proved by faith- 
fulness in detail. Has not this vagueness had 
something to do with the constant ineffectiveness 
of our feeble desire that our time should be devoted 
to God? 

In things spiritual, the greater does not always 
include the less, but, paradoxically, the less more 
often includes the greater. So in this case, time is 
entrusted to us to be traded with for our Lord. But 
we cannot grasp it as a whole. We instinctively 
break it up ere we can deal with it for any purpose. 
So when a new year comes round, we commit it with 
special earnestness to the Lord. But as we do so, 
are we not conscious of a feeling that even a year is 
too much for us to deal with? And does not this 
feeling, that we are dealing with a larger thing than 
we can grasp, take away from the sense of reality? 
Thus we are brought to a more manageable measure ; 
and as the Sunday mornings or the Monday morn- 
ings come round, we thankfully commit the opening 
week to Him, and the sense of help and rest is re- 
newed and strengthened. But not even the six or 
seven days are close enough to our hand; even 
to-morrow exceeds our tiny grasp, and even to- 
morrow's grace is therefore not given to us. So we 
find the need of considering our lives as a matter of 
day by day, and that any more general committal an d 
consecration of our time does not meet the case so 
truly. Here we have found much comfort and help, 
and if results have not been entirely satisfactory, 



28 iftept for tbe Master's TUse* 

they have, at least, been more so than before we 
reached this point of subdivision. 

But if we have found help and blessing by going 
a certain distance in one direction, is it not proba- 
ble we shall find more if we go farther in the same ? 
And so, if we may commit the days to our Lord, 
why not the hours, and why not the moments ? And 
may we not expect a fresh and special blessing in 
so doing? 

We do not realize the importance of moments. 
Only let us consider those two sayings of God about 
them, * In a moment shall they die/ and, ' We shall 
all be changed in a moment/ and we shall think 
less lightly of them. Eternal issues may hang upon 
any one of them, but it has come and gone before 
we can even think about it. Nothing seems less 
within the possibility of our own keeping, yet 
nothing is more inclusive of all other keeping. 
Therefore let us ask Him to keep them for us. 

Are they not the tiny joints in the harness through 
which the darts of temptation pierce us? Only give 
us time, we think, and we should not be overcome. 
Only give us time, and we could pray and resist, 
and the devil would flee from us ! But he comes 
all in a moment ; and in a moment — an unguarded, 
unkept one — we utter the hasty or exaggerated word, 
or think the un-Christ-like thought, or feel the un- 
Christ-like impatience or resentment. 

But even if we have gone so far as to say, ' Take 
my moments/ have we gone the step farther, and 
really let Him take them — really entrusted them to 
Him ? It is no good saying ' take/ when we do not 
let go. How can another keep that which we are keep- 



@ur foments kept for Seme. 29 

ing hold of? So let us, with full trust in His power, 
first commit these slippery moments to Him, — put 
them right into His hand, — and then we may trust- 
fully and happily say, ' Lord, keep them for me ! 
Keep every one of the quick series as it arises. I 
cannot keep them for Thee ; do Thou keep them 
for Thyself!' 

But the sanctified and Christ-loving heart cannot 
be satisfied with only negative keeping. We do not 
want only to be kept from displeasing Him, but to 
be kept always pleasing Him ; Every ' kept from ' 
should have its corresponding and still more blessed 
' kept for. ' We do not want our moments to be 
simply kept from Satan's use, but kept for His use ; 
we want them to be not only kept from sin, but kept 
for His praise. 

Do you ask, ' But what use can he make of mere 
moments ? ' I will not stay to prove or illustrate 
the obvious truth that, as are the moments so will 
be the hours and the days which they build. You 
understand that well enough. I will answer your 
question as it stands. 

Look back through the history of the Church 
in all ages, and mark how often a great work and 
mighty influence grew out of a mere moment in the 
life of one of God's servants ; a mere moment, but 
overshadowed and filled with the fruitful power of 
the Spirit of God. The moment may have been 
spent in uttering five words, but they have fed five 
thousand, or even five hundred thousand. Or it 
may have been lit by the flash of a thought that 
has shone into hearts and homes throughout the 



so iftept for tbe /toaster's TUse, 

land, and kindled torches that have been borne 
into earth's darkest corners. The rapid speaker 
or the lonely thinker little guessed what use 
his Lord was making of that single moment. There 
was no room in it for even a thought of that. If 
that moment had not been, though perhaps uncon- 
sciously, 'kept for Jesus/ but had been otherwise 
occupied, what a harvest to His praise would have 
been missed ! 

The same thing is going on every day. It is 
generally a moment — either an opening or a culmi- 
nating one — that really does the work. It is not 
so often a whole sermon as a single short sentence 
in it that wings God's arrow to a heart. It is sel- 
dom a whole conversation that is the means of 
bringing about the desired result, but some sudden 
turn of thought or word, which comes with the 
electric touch of God's power. Sometimes it is 
less than that ; only a look (and what is more mo- 
mentary?) has been used by Him for the pulling 
down of strongholds. Again, in our own quiet 
waiting upon God, as moment after moment glides 
past in the silence at His feet, the eye resting upon 
a page of His Word, or only looking up to Him 
through the darkness, have we not found that He 
can so irradiate one passing moment with His light 
that its rays never die away, but shine on and on 
through days and years? Are not such moments 
proved to have been kept for Him ? And if some, 
why not all ? 

This view of moments seems to make it clearer 
that it is impossible to serve two masters, for it is 
evident that the service of a moment cannot be 






Om foments ftept for Seem. 31 

divided. If it is occupied in the service of self, or 
any other master, it is not at the Lord's disposal; 
He cannot make use of what is already occupied. 

Oh, how much we have missed by not placing 
them at his disposal ! What might He not have 
done with the moments freighted with self or 
loaded with emptiness, which we have carelessly 
let drift by ! Oh, what might have been if they 
had all been kept for Jesus ! How He might 
have filled them with His light and life, enriching 
our own lives that have been impoverished by the 
waste, and using them in far-spreading blessing 
and power ! 

While we have been undervaluing these fractions 
of eternity, what has our gracious God been doing 
in them? How strangely touching are the words, 
'What is man, that Thou shouldest set Thine heart 
upon him, and that Thou shouldest visit him every 
morning, and try him every moment ? y Terribly 
solemn and awful would be the thought that He 
has been trying us every moment, were it not for 
the yearning gentleness and love of the Father 
revealed in that wonderful expression of wonder, 
1 What is man, that Thou shouldest set Thine heart 
upon him?' Think of that ceaseless setting of 
His heart upon us, careless and forgetful children 
as we have been ! And then think of those other 
words, none the less literally true because given 
under a figure: 'I, the Lord, do keep it; I will 
water it every moment. ' 

We see something of God's infinite greatness 
and wisdom when we try to fix our dazzled gaze 



32 Ikept tor tbe Master's TSLse. 

on infinite space. But when we turn to the mar- 
vels of the microscope, we gain a clearer view and 
more definite grasp of these attributes by gazing on 
the perfection of His infinitesimal handiworks. 
Just so, while we cannot realize the infinite love 
w r hich fills eternity, and the infinite vistas of the 
great future are * dark with excess of light ' even to 
the strongest telescopes of faith, we see that love 
magnified in the microscope of the moments, 
brought very close to us, and revealing its unspeak- 
able perfection of detail to our wondering sight. 

But we do not see this as long as the moments 
are kept in our own hands. We are like little 
children closing our fingers over diamonds. How 
■can they receive and reflect the rays of light, ana- 
lyzing them into all the splendour of their pris- 
matic beauty, while they are kept shut up tight in 
the dirty little hands? Give them up; let our 
Father hold them for us, and throw His own great 
light upon them, and then we shall see them full 
of fair colours of His manifold loving-kindnesses; 
and let Him always keep them for us, and then we 
shall always see His light and His love reflected in 
them. 

And then, surely, they shall be filled with praise. 
Not that we are to be always singing hymns, and 
using the expressions of other people's praise, any 
more than the saints in glory are always literally 
singing a new song. But praise will be the tone, 
the colour, the atmosphere in which they flow ; 
none of them away from it or out of it. 

Is it a little too much for them all to ' flow in 
ceaseless praise ' ? Well, where will you stop ? 



©ur foments ftept far Seeus, 33 

What proportion of your moments do you think 
enough for Jesus ? How many for the spirit of 
praise, and how many for the spirit of heaviness ? 
Be explicit about it, and come to an understanding. 
If He is not to have all, then how much ? Calcu- 
late, balance, and apportion. You will not be able 
to do this in heaven — you know it will be all praise 
there; but you are free to halve your service of 
praise here, or to make the proportion what you 
will. 

Yet, — He made you for His glory. 

Yet, — He chose you that you should be to the 
praise of His glory. 

Yet, — He loves you every moment, waters you 
every moment, watches you unslumberingly, cares 
for you unceasingly. 

Yet, — He died for you ! 

Dear friends, one can hardly write it without 
tears. Shall you or I remember all this love, and 
hesitate to give all our moments up to Him? Let 
us entrust Him with them, and ask Him to keep 
them all, every single one, for His own beloved 
self, and fill them all with His praise, and let them 
all be to His praise ! 



34 "Kept for tbe Master's THse. 



CHAPTER III. 



®ur "Ibanos Kept for Jesus. 

* Keep my hands , that they may move 
At the impulse of Thy love? 

WHEN the Lord has said to us, ' Is thine heart 
right, as My heart is with thy heart ? ' the 
next word seems to be, l If it be, give Me thine 
hand/ 

What a call to confidence, and love, and free, 
loyal, happy service is this ! and how different will 
the result of its acceptance be from the old lamen- 
tation : ■ We labour and have no rest ; we have 
given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyri- 
ans.' In the service of these 'other lords,' under 
whatever shape they have presented themselves, we 
shall have known something of the meaning of hav- 
ing ' both the hands full with travail and vexation 
of spirit.' How many a thing have we ■ taken in 
hand,' as we say, which we expected to find an 
agreeable task, an interest in life, a something 
towards filling up that unconfessed ' aching void ' 
which is often most real when least acknowledged ; 
and after a while we have found it change under our 
hands into irksome travail, involving perpetual vexa- 



©ur Ibanfcs ftept for 3-esus* 4 35 

tion of spirit ! The thing may have been of the earth 
and for the world, and then no wonder it failed to sat- 
isfy even the instinct of work, which comes natural 
to many of us. Or it may have been right enough 
in itself, something for the good of others so far as 
we understood their good, and unselfish in all but 
unravelled motive, and yet we found it full of 
tangled vexations, because the hands that held it 
were not simply consecrated to God. Well, if so, 
let us bring these soiled and tangle-making hands to 
the Lord, ' Let us lift up our heart with our hands ' 
to Him, asking Him to clear and cleanse them. 

If He says, ' What is that in thine hand?' let us 
examine honestly whether it is something which He 
can use for His glory or not. If not, do not let us 
hesitate an instant about dropping it. It may be 
something we do not like to part with ; but the 
Lord is able to give thee much more than this, and 
the first glimpse of the excellency of the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus your Lord will enable us to count 
those things loss which were gain to us. 

But if it is something which He can use, He will 
make us do ever so much more with it than before. 
Moses little thought what the Lord was going to 
make him do with that i rod in his hand ' ! The 
first thing he had to do with it was to ( cast it on 
the ground/ and see it pass through a startling 
change. After this he was commanded to take it 
up again, hard and terrifying as it was to do so. 
But when it became again a rod in his hand, it was 
no longer what it was before, the simple rod of a 
wandering desert shepherd. Henceforth it was 
1 the rod of God in his hand ' (Ex. iv. 20), where- 



36 Ikept for tbe /toaster's Use* 

with he should do signs, and by which God Him- 
self would do ' marvellous things' (Ps. lxxviii. 12). 

If we look at any Old Testament text about con- 
secration, we shall see that the marginal reading of 
the word is, ' fill the hand ' (e. g. Ex. xxviii. 41 ; 
1 Chron. xxix. 5). Now, if our hands are full of 
1 other things/ they cannot be filled with 'the 
things that are Jesus Christ's' ; there must be empty- 
ing before there can be any true filling. So if we 
are sorrowfully seeing that our hands have not been 
kept for Jesus, let us humbly begin at the begin- 
ning, and ask Him to empty them thoroughly, that 
He may fill them completely. 

For they must be emptied. Either we come to 
our Lord willingly about it, letting Him unclasp 
their hold, and gladly dropping the glittering 
weights they have been carrying, or, in very love, 
He will have to force them open, and wrench from 
the reluctant grasp the ' earthly things ' which are 
so occupying them that He cannot have His right- 
ful use of them. There is only one other alterna- 
tive, a terrible one, — to be let alone till the day 
comes when not a gentle Master, but the relentless 
king of terrors shall empty the trembling hands as 
our feet follow him out of the busy world into the 
dark valley, for ' it is certain we can carry nothing 
out.' 

Yet the emptying and the filling are not all that 
has to be considered. Before the. hands of the 
priests could be filled with the emblems of conse- 
cration, they had to be laid upon the emblem of 






©ur Ibanfcs kept tor Jesua* 37 

atonement (Lev. viii. 14, etc.). That came first. 
'Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head 
of the bullock for the sin-offering. ' So the trans- 
ference of guilt to our Substitute, typified by that 
act, must precede the dedication of ourselves to 
God. 

* My faith would lay her hand 
On that dear head of Thine, 
While like a penitent I stand, 
And there confess my sin/ 

The blood of that Holy Substitute was shed ' to 
make reconciliation upon the altar. ' Without that 
reconciliation we cannot offer and present our- 
selves to God ; but this being made, Christ Him- 
self presents us. And you, that were sometime 
alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked 
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of 
His flesh through death, to present you holy and 
unblamable and unreprovable in His sight. 

Then Moses 'brought the ram for the burnt- 
offering ; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands 
upon the head of the ram, and Moses burnt the 
whole ram upon the altar ; it was a burnt-offering 
for a sweet savour, and an offering made by fire un- 
to the Lord.' Thus Christ's offering was indeed a 
whole one, body, soul, and spirit, each and all suf- 
fering even unto death. These atoning sufferings, 
accepted by God for us, are, by our own free act, 
accepted by us as the ground of our acceptance. 

Then, reconciled and accepted, we are ready for 
consecration ; for then ' he brought the other ram ; 
the ram of consecration ; and Aaron and his sons 



38 'Kept for tbe Master's XClae^ 

laid their hands upon the head of the ram. 1 Here 
we see Christ, ' who is consecrated for evermore. ' 
We enter by faith into union with Him who said, 
* For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also 
might be sanctified through the truth. ' 

After all this, their hands were filled with l con- 
secrations for a sweet savour/ so, after laying the 
hand of our faith upon Christ, suffering and dying 
for us, we are to lay that very same hand of faith, 
and in the very same way, upon Him as consecrated 
for us, to be the source and life and power of our 
consecration. And then our hands shall be filled 
with ' consecrations/ filled with Christ, and filled 
with all that is a sweet savour to God in Him. 

'And who then is willing to fill his hand this 
day unto the Lord ? ' Do you want an added 
motive? Listen again: 'Fill your hands to-day 
to the Lord, that He may bestow upon you a bless- 
ing this day. ' Not a long time hence, not even to- 
morrow, but 'this day.' Do you not want a bless- 
ing? Is not your answer to your Father's 'What 
wilt thou ? ' the same as Achsah's, ' Give me a bless- 
ing ! ' Here is His promise of just what you so 
want ; will you not gladly fulfil His condition ? A 
blessing shall immediately follow. He does not 
specify what it shall be ; He waits to reveal it. You 
will find it such a blessing as you had not supposed 
could be for you — a blessing that shall verily make 
you rich, with no sorrow added — a blessing this 
day. 

All that has been said about consecration applies 
to our literal members. Stay a minute, and look 



©ur IbanDs ftept for Jesus. 39 

at your hand, the hand that holds this little book as 
you read it. See how wonderfully it is made ; how 
perfectly fitted for what it has to do ; how ingen- 
iously connected with the brain, so as to yield that 
instantaneous and instinctive obedience without 
which its beautiful mechanism would be very little 
good to us ! Your hand, do you say ? Whether it 
is soft and fair with an easy life, or rough and strong 
with a working one, or white and weak with illness, 
it is the Lord Jesus Christ's. It is not your own 
at all ; it belongs to Him. He made it, for with- 
out Him was not anything made that was made, not 
even your hand. And He has the added right of 
purchase — He has bought it that it might be one of 
His own instruments. We know this very well, but 
have we realized it? Have we really let Him have 
the use of these hands of ours ? and have we ever 
simply and sincerely asked Him to keep them for 
His own use ? 

Does this mean that we are always to be doing 
some definitely ' religious ' work, as it is called ? 
No, but that all that we do is to be always definitely 
doneyfrr Him. There is a great difference. If the 
hands are indeed moving 'at the impulse of His 
love,' the simplest little duties and acts are trans- 
figured into holy service to the Lord. 

*A servant with this clause 
Makes drudgery divine ; 
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, 
Makes that and the action fine.' 

George Herbert. 

A Christian school -girl loves Jesus; she wants to 
please Him all day long, and so she practices her 



4© Ikept for tbe /toaster's TELse. 

scales carefully and conscientiously. It is at the 
impulse of His love that her fingers move so stead- 
ily through the otherwise tiresome exercises. Some 
day. her Master will find a use for her music ; but 
meanwhile it may be just as really done unto Him 
as if it were Mr. Sankey at his organ, swaying the 
hearts of thousands. The hand of a Christian lad 
traces his Latin verses, or his figures, or his copy- 
ing. He is doing his best, because a banner has 
been given him that it may be displayed, not so 
much by talk as by continuance in well-doing. 
And so, for Jesus' sake, his hand moves accurately 
and perseveringly. 

A busy wife, or daughter, or servant has a num- 
ber of little manual duties to perform. If these are 
done slowly and leisurely, they may be got through, 
but there will not be time left for some little service 
to the poor, or some little kindness to a suffering or 
troubled neighbour, or for a little quiet time alone 
with God and His word. And so the hands move 
quickly, impelled by the loving desire for service or 
communion, kept in busy motion for Jesus' sake. 
Or it may be that the special aim is to give no oc- 
casion of reproach to some who are watching, but 
so to adorn the doctrine that those may be won by 
the life who will not be won by the word. Then 
the hands will have their share to do ; they will 
move carefully, neatly, perhaps even elegantly, 
making every thing around as nice as possible, let- 
ting their intelligent touch be seen in the details of 
the home, and even of the dress, doing or arranging 
all the little things decently and in order for Jesus' 
sake. And so on with every duty in every position. 



Out 1banfcs ftept for Jesus* 41 

It may seem an odd idea, but a simple glance at 
one's hand, with the recollection, ' This hand is 
not mine ; it has been given to Jesus, and it must 
be kept for Jesus/ may sometimes turn the scale in 
a doubtful matter, and be a safeguard from certain 
temptations. With that thought fresh in your mind 
as you look at your hand, can you let it take up 
things which, to say the very least, are not i for 
Jesus ' ? things which evidently cannot be used, as 
v they most certainly are not used, either for Him or 
by Him ? Cards, for instance ! Can you deliber- 
ately hold in it books of a kind which you know 
perfectly well, by sadly repeated experience, lead 
you farther from instead of nearer to Him ? books 
which must and do fill your mind with those i other 
things ' which, entering in, choke the word ? books 
which you would not care to read at all, if your 
heart were burning within you at the coming of 
His feet to bless you ? Next time any temptation 
of this sort approaches, just look at your hand / 

It was of a literal hand that our Lord Jesus spoke 
when He said, t Behold, the hand of him that be- 
trayeth Me is with Me on the table;' and, ' He 
that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the 
same shall betray Me. ' A hand so near to Jesus, 
with Him on the table, touching His own hand in 
the dish at that hour of sweetest, and closest, and 
most solemn intercourse, and yet betraying Him ! 
That same hand taking the thirty pieces of silver ! 
What a tremendous lesson of the need of keeping 
for our hands ! Oh that every hand that is with 
Him at His sacramental table, and that takes the 
memorial bread, may be kept from any faithless 



42 fcept for tbe ^Raster's mse. 

and loveless motion ! And again, it was by literal 
' wicked hands* that our Lord Jesus was crucified 
and slain. Does not the thought that human 
hands have been so treacherous and cruel to our 
beloved Lord make us wish the more fervently 
that our hands may be totally faithful and devoted 
to Him? 

Danger and temptation to let the hands move at 
other impulses is every bit as great to those who 
have nothing else to do but to render direct service, 
and who think they are doing nothing else. Take 
one practical instance — our letter-writing. Have 
we not been tempted (and fallen before the temp- 
tation), according to our various dispositions, to let 
the hand that holds the pen move at the impulse to 
write an unkind thought of another; or to say a 
clever and sarcastic thing, or a slightly coloured 
and exaggerated filing, which will make our point 
more telling ; or to let out a grumble or a suspi- 
cion ; or to let the pen run away with us into flip- 
pant and trifling words, unworthy of our high and 
holy calling ? Have we not drifted away from the 
golden reminder, ( Should he reason with unprofit- 
able talk, and with speeches wherewith he can do 
no good ? ' Why has this been, perhaps again and 
again? Is it not for want of putting our hands 
into our dear Master's hand, and asking and trust- 
ing Him to keep them? He could have kept; He 
would have kept ! 

Whatever our work or our special temptations 
may be, the principle remains the same, only let us 
apply it for ourselves. 



©ur Ibanfcs ftept for Seene. as 

Perhaps one hardly needs to say that the kept 
hands will be very gentle hands. Quick, angry 
motions of the heart will sometimes force them- 
selves into expression by the hand, though the 
tongue may be restrained. The very way in which 
we close a door or lay down a book may be a vic- 
tory or a defeat, a witness to Christ's keeping or a 
witness that we are not truly being kept. How can 
we expect that God will use this member as an in- 
strument of righteousness unto Him, if we yield it 
thus as an instrument of unrighteousness unto sin ? 
Therefore let us see to it, that it is at once yielded 
to Him whose right it is; and let our sorrow that 
it should have been even for an instant desecrated 
to Satan's use, lead us to entrust it henceforth to 
our Lord, to be kept by the power of God through 
faith ' for the Master's use.' 

For when the gentleness of Christ dwells in us, 
He can use the merest touch of a finger. Have we 
not heard of one gentle touch on a wayward shoul- 
der being the turning-point of a life ? I have known 
a case in which the Master made use of less than 
that — only the quiver of a little finger being made 
the means of touching a wayward heart. 

What must the touch of the Master's own hand 
have been ! One imagines it very gentle, though 
so full of power. Can He not communicate both 
the power and the gentleness ? When He touched 
the hand of Peter's wife's mother, she arose and 
ministered unto them. Do you not think the hand 
which Jesus had just touched must have ministered 
very excellently ? As we ask Him to ' touch our lips 
with living fire,' so that they may speak effectively 



44 *fcept for tbe Master's TUse* 

for Him, may we not ask Him to touch our hands, 
that they may minister effectively, and excel in all 
that they find to do for Him ? Then our hands 
shall be made strong by the hands of the Mighty 
God of Jacob. 

It is very pleasant to feel that if our hands are in- 
deed our Lord's, we may ask Him to guide them, 
and strengthen them, and teach them. I do not 
mean figuratively, but quite literally. In every- 
thing they do for Him (and that should be every- 
thing we ever undertake) we want to do it well — 
better and better. ' Seek that ye may excel/ We 
are too apt to think that He has given us certain 
natural gifts, but has nothing practically to do with' 
the improvement of them, and leaves us to our- 
selves for that. Why not ask him to make these 
hands of ours more handy for His service, more 
skilful in what is indicated as the ' next thynge ' they 
are to do ? The ' kept ' hands need not be clumsy 
hands. If the Lord taught David's hands to war and 
his fingers to fight, will He not teach our hands,, and 
fingers too, to do what He would have them do ? 

The Spirit of God must have taught Bezaleel's 
hands as well as his head, for he was filled with it 
not only that he might devise cunning works, but 
also in cutting of stones and carving of timber. And 
when all the women that were wise-hearted did spin 
with their hands, the hands must have been made 
skilful as well as the hearts made wise to prepare 
the beautiful garments and curtains. 

There is a very remarkable instance of the hand 
of the Lord, which I suppose signifies in that case 



©ur Ibanfcs kept for Seeue. 45 

the power of His Spirit, being upon the hand of a 
man. In i Chron. xxviii. 19, we read : ' All this, 
said David, the Lord made me understand in writ- 
ing by His hand upon me, even all the works of 
this pattern.' This cannot well mean that the Lord 
gave David a miraculously written scroll, because, 
a few verses before, it says that he had it all by the 
Spirit. So what else can it mean but that as David 
wrote, the hand of the Lord was upon his hand, 
impelling him to trace, letter by letter, the right 
words of description for all the details of the temple 
that Solomon should build, with its courts and 
chambers, its treasuries and vessels ? Have we not 
sometimes sat down to write, feeling perplexed and 
ignorant, and wishing some one were there to tell 
us what to say? At such a moment, whether it 
were a mere note for post, or a sheet for press, it is 
a great comfort to recollect this mighty laying of a 
Divine hand upon a human one, and ask for the 
same help from the same Lord. It is sure to be 
given ! 

And now, dear friend, what about your own 
hands? Are they consecrated to the Lord who 
loves you ? And if they are, are you trusting Him 
to keep them, and enjoying all that is involved in 
that keeping? Do let this be settled with your 
Master before you go on to the next chapter. 

After all, this question will hinge on another, Do 
you love Him ? If you really do, there can surely 
be neither hesitation about yielding them to Him, 
nor about entrusting them to Him to be kept. Does 
He love you ? That is the truer way of putting it ; 



46 'Kept for tbe d&aster's TUse* 

for it is not our love to Christ, but the love of 
Christ to us which constraineth us. And this is 
the impulse of the motion and the mode of the 
keeping. The steam-engine does not move when 
the fire is not kindled, nor when it is gone out ; no 
matter how complete the machinery and abundant 
the fuel, cold coals will neither set it going nor. 
keep it working. Let us ask Him so to shed 
abroad His love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost 
which is given unto us, that it may be the perpetual 
and only impulse of every action of our daily life. 



CHAPTER IV. 



©ur ifcet kept for 3eeue. 

1 Keep my feet, that they ?nay be 
Swift and beautiful for Thee? 

THE figurative keeping of the feet of His saints, 
with the promise that when they run they 
shall not stumble, is a most beautiful and helpful 
subject. But it is quite distinct from the literal 
keeping for Jesus of our literal feet. 

There is a certain homeliness about the idea which 
helps to make it very real. These very feet of ours 
are purchased for Christ's service by the precious 
drops which fell from His own torn and pierced feet 
upon the cross. They are to be His errand-run- 



©ur jFeet fcept tot 5es\\e. 47 

ners. How can we let the world, the flesh, and the 
devil have the use of what has been purchased with 
such payment? 

Shall ' the world ' have the use of them ? Shall 
they carry us where the world is paramount, and 
the Master cannot be even named, because the men- 
tion of His Name would be so obviously out of 
place? I know the apparent difficulties of a subject 
which will at once occur in connection with this, 
but they all vanish when our bright banner is loy- 
ally unfurled, with its motto, 'All for Jesus !' Do- 
you honestly want your very feet to be l kept for 
Jesus ' ? Let these simple words, ' Kept for Jesus, 9 
ring out next time the dancing difficulty or any 
other difficulty of the same kind comes up, and I 
know what the result will be ! 

Shall ' the flesh ' have the use of them ? Shall they 
carry us hither and thither merely because we like 
to go, merely because it pleases ourselves to take 
this walk or pay this visit? And after all, what a 
failure it is ! If people only would believe it, self- 
pleasing is always a failure in the end. Our good 
Master gives us a reality and fulness of pleasure in 
pleasing Him which we never get out of pleasing 
ourselves. 

Shall ' the devil ' have the use of them ? Oh no, 
of course not ! We start back at this, as a highly 
unnecessary question. Yet if Jesus has not, Satan 
has. For as all are serving either the Prince of 
Life or the prince of this world, and as no man can 
serve two masters, it follows that if we are not serv- 
ing the one, we are serving the other. And Satan 
is only too glad to disguise this service under the 



48 *fcept for tbe /Raster's IDlae* 

less startling form of the world, or the still less 
startling one of self. All that is not ' kept for 
Jesus/ is left for self or the world, and there- 
fore for Satan. 

There is no fear but that our Lord will have 
many uses for what is kept by Him for Himself. 
* How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad 
tidings of good things ! ' That is the best use of 
all; and I expect the angels think those feet beauti- 
ful, even if they are cased in muddy boots or 
goloshes. 

Once the question was asked, ' Wherefore wilt 
thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings 
ready ? ' So if we want to have these beautiful feet, 
we must have the tidings ready which they are to 
bear. Let us ask Him to keep our hearts so freshly 
full of His good news of salvation, that our mouths 
may speak out of their abundance. * If the clouds 
be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the 
earth.' The ' two olive branches empty the golden 
oil out of themselves. ' May we be so filled with 
the Spirit that we may thus have much to pour out 
for others ! 

Besides the great privilege of carrying water from 
the wells of salvation, there are plenty of cups of 
cold water to be carried in all directions ; not to 
the poor only, — ministries of love are often as much 
needed by a rich friend. But the feet must be kept 
for these; they will be too tired for them if they 
are tired out for self-pleasing. In such services we 
are treading in the blessed steps of His most holy 
life, who ' went about doing good.' 



©ur jfeet kept for Sesue* 49 

, Then there is literal errand-going, — just to fetch 
something that is needed for the household, or 
something that a tired relative wants, whether asked 
or unasked. Such things should come first in- 
stead of last, because these are clearly indicated 
as our Lord's will for us to do, by the position 
in which He has placed us; while what seems 
more direct service, may be after all not so di- 
rectly apportioned by Him. ' I have to go and buy 
some soap/ said one with a little sigh. The sigh 
was waste of breath, for her feet were going to 
do her Lord's will for that next half-hour much 
more truly than if they had carried her to her 
well-worked district, and left the soap to take its 
chance. 

A member of the Young Women's Christian 
Association wrote a few words on this subject, 
which, I think, will be welcome to many more than 
she expected them to reach : — 

' May it not be a comfort to those of us who fee) 
we have not the mental or spiritual power that 
others have, to notice that the living sacrifice men- 
tioned in Rom. xii. 1 is our " bodies " ? Of course, 
that includes the mental power, but does it not 
also include the loving, sympathizing glance, the 
kind, encouraging word, the ready errand for 
another, the work of our hands, opportunities for 
all of which come oftener in the day than for the 
mental power we are often tempted to envy ? May 
we be enabled to offer willingly that which we have. 
For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 
according to that a man hath, and not according to 
that he hath not.' 



5o •foept for tbe /toaster's TUse* 

If our feet are to be kept at His disposal, our 
eyes must be ever toward the Lord for guidance. 
We must look to Him for our orders where to go. 
Then He will be sure to give them. c The steps 
of a good man are ordered by the Lord.* Very 
often we find that they have been so very literally 
ordered for us that we are quite astonished, — just as 
if He had not promised ! 

Do not smile at a very homely thought ! If our 
feet are not our own, ought we not to take care of 
them for Him whose they are ? Is it quite right to 
be reckless about ' getting wet feet,' which might 
be guarded against either by forethought or after- 
thought, when there is, at least, a risk of hindering 
our service thereby? Does it please the Master 
when even in our zeal for His work we annoy 
anxious friends by carelessness in little things of 
this kind? 

May every step of our feet be more and more 
like those of our beloved Master. Let us continu- 
ally consider Him in this, and go where He would 
have gone, on the errands which He would have 
done, ' following hard ' after Him. And let us 
look on to the time when our feet shall stand in the 
gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, when holy feet 
shall tread the streets of the holy city ; no longer 
pacing any lonely path, for He hath said, ' They 
shall walk with Me in white/ 



' And He hath said, " How beautiful the feet ! " 
The " feet " so weary, travel-stained, and worn- 
The " feet " that humbly, patiently have borne 
The toilsome way, the pressure, and the heat. 



©ur Voices ftept for Jesus. 5* 

' The " feet," not hasting on with winged might, 
Nor strong to trample down the opposing foe ; 
So lowly, and so human, they must go 
By painful steps to scale the mountain height. 

' Not unto all the tuneful lips are given, 

The ready tongue, the words so strong and sweet ; 
Yet all may turn, with humble, willing " feet/' 
And bear to darkened souls the light from heaven. 

1 And fall they while the goal far distant lies, 

With scarce a word yet spoken for their Lord— 
His sweet approval He doth yet accord ; 
Their " feet " are beauteous in the Master's eyes. 

* With weary human " feet " He, day by day, 
Once trod this earth to work His acts of love ; 
And every step is chronicled above 
His servants take to follow in His way.' 

Sarah Geraldina Stock. 



CHAPTER V. 



©ur Doices ftept for 3esu0. 

1 Keep my voice^ and let me sing 
Always, only, for my King? 

I HAVE wondered a little at being told by an ex- 
perienced worker, that in many cases the voice 
seems the last and hardest thing to yield entirely to 
the King ; and that many who think and say they 



52 



IRept tor tbe /toaster's Ulse* 



have consecrated all to the Lord and His service, 
' revolt ' when it comes to be a question of whether 
they shall sing ' always, only,' for their King. They 
do not mind singing a few general sacred songs, 
but they do not see their way to really singing 
always and only unto and for Him. They want to 
bargain and balance a little. They question and 
argue about what proportion they may keep for 
self- pleasing and company-pleasing, and how much 
they must ' give up ' ; and who will and who won't 
like it ; and what they ' really must sing,' and what 
they ' really must not sing ' at certain times and 
places; and what 'won't do,' and what they * can't 
very well help,' and so on. And so when the ques- 
tion, ' How much owest thou unto my Lord ? ' is 
applied to this particularly pleasant gift, it is not 
met with the loyal, free-hearted, happy response, 
' All ! yes, all for Jesus ! ' 

I know there are special temptations around this 
matter. Vain and selfish ones — whispering how 
much better a certain song suits your voice, and 
how much more likely to be admired. Faithless 
ones — suggesting doubts whether you can make the 
holy song 'go. 1 Specious ones — asking whether 
you ought not to please your neighbours, and 
hushing up the rest of the precept, ' Let every 
one of you please his neighbour for his good to 
edification ' (Rom. xv. 2). Cowardly ones — telling 
you that it is just a little too much to expect of 
you, and that you are not called upon to wave 
your banner in people's very faces, and provoke 
surprise and remark, as this might do. And so 
the banner is kept furled, the witness for Jesus is 



©ut IDoices ftept for 3-esus* 53 



not borne, and you sing for others and not for 
your King. 

The words had passed your lips, 'Take my 
voice !' And yet you will not let Him have it; 
you will not let Him have that which costs you 
something, just because it costs you something ! 
And yet He lent you that pleasant voice that you 
might use it for Him. And yet He, in the sureness 
of His perpetual presence, was beside you all the 
while, and heard every note as you sang the songs 
which were, as your inmost heart knew, not for 
Him. 

Where is your faith ? Where is the consecration 
you have talked about ? The voice has not been 
kept for Him, because it has not been truly and un- 
reservedly given to Him. Will you not now say, 
6 Take my voice, for I had not given it to Thee ; 
keep my voice, for I cannot keep it for Thee ' ? 

And He will keep it ! You cannot tell, till you 
have tried, how surely all the temptations flee when 
it is no longer your battle but the Lord's; nor how 
completely and curiously all the difficulties vanish, 
when you simply and trustfully go forward in the 
path of full consecration in this matter. You will 
find that the keeping is most wonderfully real. Do 
not expect to lay down rules and provide for every 
sort of contingency. If you could, you would miss 
the sweetness of the continual guidance in the 
'kept' course. Have only one rule about it — just 
to look up to your Master about every single song 
you are asked or feel inclined to sing. If you are 
'willing and obedient/ you will always meet His 
guiding eye. He will always keep the voice that is 



54 *ftept for tbe Master's Vise. 

wholly at His disposal. Soon you will have such 
experience of His immediate guidance that you will 
be utterly satisfied with it. and only sorrowfully 
wonder you did not sooner thus simply lean on it. 
I have just received a letter from one who has 
laid her special gift at the feet of the Giver, yield- 
ing her voice to Him with hearty desire that it 
might be kept for His use. She writes: 'I had 
two lessons on singing while in Germany from our 
Master. One was very sweet. A young girl wrote 
to me, that when she had heard me sing, " O come, 
everyone that thiisteth," she went away and prayed 
that she might come, and she did come, too. Is 
not He good ? The other was : I had been tempted 

to join the Gesang Verein in N . I prayed to 

be shown whether I was right in so doing or not. 
I did not see my way clear, so I went. The sing- 
ing was all secular. The very first night I went I 
caught a bad cold on my chest, which prevented me 
from singing again at all till Christmas. Those 
were better than any lessons from a singing master!' 
Does not this illustrate both the keeping from and 
the keeping for f In the latter case I believe she 
honestly wished to know her Lord's will, — whether 
the training and practice were needed for His bet- 
ter service with her music, and that, therefore, she 
might take them for His sake ; or whether the con- 
comitants and influence would be such as to hinder 
the close communion with Him which she had 
found so precious, and that, therefore, she was to 
trust Him to give her ' much more than this. ' And 
so, at once, He showed her unmistakeably what He 
would have her not do, and gave her the sweet 



©ur Voices ftept for Jesus* 55 

consciousness that He Himself was teaching her 
and taking her at her word. I know what her pas- 
sionate love for music is, and how very real and 
great the compensation from Him must have been 
which could thus make her right down glad about 
what would otherwise have been an immense disap- 
pointment. And then, as to the former of these 
two ' lessons/ the song she names was one substi- 
tuted when she said, ' Take my voice,' for some 
which were far more effective for her voice. But 
having freely chosen to sing what might glorify the 
Master rather than the singer, see how, almost im- 
mediately, He gave her a reward infinitely outweigh- 
ing all the drawing-room compliments or concert- 
room applause ! That one consecrated song found 
echoes in heaven, bringing, by its blessed result, 
joy to the angels and glory to God. And the mem- 
ory of that song is immortal ; it will live through 
ages to come, never lost, never dying away, when 
the vocal triumphs of the world's greatest singers 
are past and forgotten for ever. Now you who have 
been taking a half-and-half course, do you get such 
rewards as this ? You may well envy them ! But 
why not take the same decided course, and share 
the same blessed keeping and its fulness of hidden 
reward ? 

If you only knew, dear hesitating friends, what 
strength and gladness the Master gives when we 
loyally 'sing forth the honour of His Name,' you 
would not forego it ! Oh, if you only knew the dif- 
ficulties it saves ! For when you sing ' always and 
only for your King,' you will not get much en- 
tangled by the King's enemies. Singing an out- 



56 Ifcept tor tbe Master's Use* 

and-out sacred song often clears one's path at a 
stroke as to many other things. If you only knew 
the rewards He gives — very often then and there ; 
the recognition that you are one of the King's 
friends by some lonely and timid one \ the open- 
ings which you quite naturally gain of speaking a 
word for Jesus to hearts which, without the song, 
would never have given you the chance of the word ! 
If you only knew the joy of believing that Hk 
sure promise, ' My Word shall not return unto Me 
void/ will be fulfilled as you sing that word for 
Him ! If you only tasted the solemn happiness of 
knowing that you have indeed a royal audience, 
that the King Himself is listening as you sing ! If 
you only knew — and why should you not know? 
Shall not the time past of your life suffice you for 
the miserable, double-hearted, calculating service ? 
Let Him have the whole use of your voice at any 
cost, and see if He does not put many a totally un- 
expected new song into your mouth ! 

I am not writing all this to great and finished 
singers, but to everybody who can sing at all. 
Those who think they have only a very small talent, 
are often most tempted not to trade with it for their 
Lord. Whether you have much or little natural 
voice, there is reason for its cultivation and room 
for its use. Place it at your Lord's disposal, and 
He will show you how to make the most of it for 
Him; for not seldom His multiplying power is 
brought to bear on a consecrated voice. A puzzled 
singing master, very famous in his profession, said 
to one who tried to sing for Jesus, ' Well, you have 
not much voice; but, mark my words, you will 



©ur Voicce ftept for Scene. 57 

always beat anybody with four times your voice ! ' 
He was right, though he did not in the least know 
why. 

A great many so-called i sacred songs' are so 
plaintive and pathetic that they help to give a 
gloomy idea of religion. Now dorit sing these ; 
come out boldly, and sing definitely and unmis- 
takeably for your King, and of your King, and to 
your King. You will soon find, and even outsiders 
will have to own, that it is a good thing thus to show 
forth His loving-kindness and His faithfulness (see 
Ps. xcii. 1-3). 

Here I am usually met by the query, ' But what 
would you advise me to sing ? ' I can only say that 
I never got any practical help from asking any one 
but the Master Himself, and so I would advise you 
to do the same ! He knows exactly what will best 
suit your voice and enable you to sing best for 
Him ; for He made it, and gave it just the pitch 
and tone He pleased, so, of course, He is the best 
counsellor about it. Refer your question in sim- 
plest faith to Him, and I am perfectly sure you will 
find it answered. He will direct you, and in some 
way or other the Lord will provide the right songs 
for you to sing. That is the very best advice I can 
possibly give you on the subject, and you will prove 
it to be so if you will act upon it. 

Only one thing I would add : I believe there is 
nothing like singing His own words. The preacher 
claims the promise, ' My word shall not return unto 
Me void,' and why should not the singer equally 
claim it? Why should we use His own inspired 



$8 Ikept tor tbe Master's Tflse. 

words, with faith in their power, when speaking or 
writing, and content ourselves with human words 
put into rhyme (and sometimes very feeble rhyme) 
for our singing ? 

What a vista of happy work opens out here ! 
What is there to prevent our using this mightiest 
of all agencies committed to human agents, the 
Word, which is quick and powerful, and sharper 
than any two-edged sword, whenever we are asked 
to sing ? By this means, even a young girl may be 
privileged to make that Word sound in the ears of 
many who would not listen to it otherwise. By 
this, the incorruptible seed may be sown in other- 
wise unreachable ground. 

It is a remarkable fact that it is actually the 
easiest way thus to take the very highest ground. 
You will find that singing Bible words does not ex- 
cite the prejudice or contempt that any other words, 
sufficiently decided to be worth singing, are almost 
sure to do. For very decency's sake, a Bible song 
will be listened to respectfully; and for very 
shame's sake, no adverse whisper will be ventured 
against the words in ordinary English homes. The 
singer is placed on a vantage-ground, certain that 
at least the words of the song will be outwardly re- 
spected, and the possible ground of unfriendly 
criticism thus narrowed to begin with. 

But there is much more than this. One feels the 
power of His words for oneself as one sings. One 
loves them and rejoices in them, and what can be 
greater help to any singer than that? And one 
knows they are true, and that they cannot really re- 
turn void, and what can give greater confidence 



Q\xv Voices kept tor Jesus* 59 

than that ? God may bless the singing of any 
words, but He must bless the singing of His own 
Word, if that promise means what it says ! 

The only real difficulty in the matter is that 
Scripture songs, as a rule, require a little more prac- 
tice than others. Then practise them a little more ! 
You think nothing of the trouble of learning, for 
instance, a sonata, which takes you many a good 
hour's practice before you can render it perfectly 
and expressively. But you shrink from a song, the 
accompaniment of which you cannot read off with- 
out any trouble at all. And you never think of 
such a thing as taking one-tenth the pains to learn 
that accompaniment that you took to learn that 
sonata ! Very likely, too, you take the additional 
pains to learn the sonata off by heart, so that you 
may play it more effectively. But you do not take 
pains to learn your accompaniment by heart, so 
that you may throw all your power into the expres- 
sion of the words, undistracted by reading the notes 
and turning over the leaves. It is far more useful 
to have half a dozen Scripture songs thoroughly 
learnt and made your own, than to have in your 
portfolios several dozen easy settings of sacred 
poetry which you get through with your eyes fixed 
on the notes. And every one thus thoroughly mas- 
tered makes it easier to master others. 

You will say that all this refers only to drawing- 
room singing. So it does, primarily, but then it is 
the drawing-room singing which has been so little 
for Jesus and so much for self and society ; and so 
much less has been said about it, and so much less 
done. There would not be half the complaints of 



60 ikept for tbe /toaster's TUse* 

the difficulty of witnessing for Christ in even pro- 
fessedly Christian homes and circles, if every con- 
verted singer were also a consecrated one. For 
nothing raises or lowers the tone of a whole even- 
ing so much as the character of the music. There 
are few things which show more clearly that, as a 
rule, a very definite step in advance is needed be- 
yond being a believer or even a worker for Christ. 
Over how many grand or cottage pianos could the 
Irish Society's motto, 'For Jesus' sake only,' be 
hung, without being either a frequent reproach, or 
altogether inappropriate? 

But what is learnt will, naturally, be sung. And 
oh ! how many Christian parents give their daugh- 
ters the advantage of singing lessons without 
troubling themselves in the least about what songs 
are learnt, provided they are not exceptionally 
foolish ! Still more pressingly I would say, how 
many Christian principals, to whom young lives 
are entrusted at the most important time of all for 
training, do not give themselves the least concern 
about this matter ! As I write, I turn aside to refer 
to a list of songs learnt last term by a fresh young 
voice which would willingly be trained for higher 
work. There is just one ' sacred ' song in the 
whole long list, and even that hardly such a one as 
the writer of the letter above quoted would care to 
sing in her fervent-spirited service of Christ. All 
the rest are harmless and pleasing, but only sug- 
gestive of the things of earth, the things of the 
world that is passing away; not one that might 
lead upward and onward, not one that might touch 
a careless heart to seek first the kingdom of God, 



Our Voices ftept for 3cme. 61 

not one that might show forth the glory and praise 
of our King, not one that tells out His grace and 
love, not one that carries His comfort to His weary 
ones or His joy to His loving ones. She is left to 
find and learn such songs as best she may ; those 
which she will sing with all the ease and force 
gained by good teaching of them are no help at all, 
but rather hindrance in anything like wish or at- 
tempt to ' sing for Jesus. ' 

There is not the excuse that the songs of God's 
kingdom, songs which waft His own words to the 
souls around, would not have answered the teacher's 
purpose as well. God has taken care of that. He 
has not left Himself without witness in this direc- 
tion. He has given the most perfect melodies and 
the richest harmonies to be linked with His own 
words, and no singer can be trained beyond His 
wonderful provision in this way. I pray that even 
these poor words of mine may reach the consciences 
of some of those who have this responsibility, and 
lead them to be no longer unfaithful in this impor- 
tant matter, no longer giving this strangely divided 
service — training, as they profess to desire, the 
souls for God, and yet allowing the voices to be 
trained only for the world. 

But we must not run away with the idea that 
singing sacred songs and singing for Jesus are 
convertible terms. I know by sorrowful personal 
experience that it is very possible to sing a sacred 
song and not sing it for Jesus. It is easier to have 
one's portfolio all right than one's heart, and the 
repertory is more easily arranged than the motives. 



62 -Kept for tbe /toaster's THee* 

When we have taken our side, and the difficulties 
of indecision are consequently swept away, we have 
a new set of more subtle temptations to encounter. 
And although the Master will keep, the servant 
must watch and pray ; and it is through the watch- 
ing and the praying that the keeping will be effec- 
tual. We have, however, rather less excuse here 
than even elsewhere. For we never have to sing 
so very suddenly that we need be taken unawares. 
We have to think what to sing, and perhaps find 
the music, and the prelude has to be played, and all 
this gives quite enough time for us to recollect 
whose we are and whom we serve, and to arouse to 
the watch. Quite enough, too, for quick, trustful 
prayer that our singing may be kept free from that 
wretched self-seeking or even self- consciousness, 
and kept entirely for Jesus. Our best and happiest 
singing will flow when there is a sweet, silent un- 
dercurrent of prayerful or praiseful communion 
with our Master all through the song. As for 
nervousness, I am quite sure this is the best anti- 
dote to that. 

On the other hand, it is quite possible to sing 
for Jesus without singing a sacred song. Do not 
take an ell for the inch this seems to give, and run 
off with the idea that it does not matter after all 
what you sing, so that you sing in a good frame of 
mind ! No such thing ! And the admission needs 
very careful guarding, and must not be wrested into 
an excuse for looking back to the world's songs. 
But cases may and do arise in which it may be right 
to gratify a weary father, or win a wayward brother, 
by trying to please them with music to which they 



0\xv Voices ftept for Jesus* 6$ 

will listen when they would not listen to the songs 
you would rather sing. There are cases in which 
this may be done most truly for the Lord's sake, 
and clearly under His guidance. 

Sometimes cases arise in which we can only say, 
6 Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are 
upon Thee. ' And when we honestly say that, de- 
pend upon it we shall find the promise true, 'I 
will guide thee with Mine eye.' For God is faith- 
ful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above 
that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also 
make a way (Gr. the way) to escape, that ye may 
be able to bear it. 

I do not know why it should be so, but it cer- 
tainly is a much rarer thing to find a young gentle- 
man singing for Jesus than a young lady, — a very 
rare thing to find one with a cultivated voice con- 
secrating it to the Master's use. I have met some 
who were not ashamed to speak for Him, to whom 
it never seemed even to occur to sing for Him. 
They would go and teach a Bible class one day, 
and the next they would be practising or perform- 
ing just the same songs as those who care nothing 
for Christ and His blood-bought salvation. They 
had left some things behind, but they had not left 
any of their old songs behind. They do not seem 
to think that being made new creatures in Christ 
Jesus had anything to do with this department of 
their lives. Nobody could gather whether they 
were on the Lord's side or not, as they stood and 
sang their neutral songs. The banner that was 
displayed in the class-room was furled in the draw- 
ing-room. Now, my friends, you who have or may 



64 ftept tor tbe Master's Use. 

have far greater opportunities of displaying that 
banner than we womenkind, why should you be 
less brave and loyal than your sisters? We are 
weak and you are strong naturally, but recollect 
that want of decision always involves want of 
power, and compromising Christians are always 
weak Christians. You will never be mighty to the 
pulling down of strongholds while you have one 
foot in the enemy's camp, or on the supposed 
neutral ground, if such can exist (which I doubt), 
between the camps. You will never be a terror to 
the devil till you have enlisted every gift and 
faculty on the Lord's side. Here is a thing in 
which you may practically carry out the splendid 
motto, ' All for Jesus. ' You cannot be all for Him 
as long as your voice is not for Him. Which shall 
it be? Alliox Him, or partly for Him ? Answer 
that to Him whom you call Master and Lord. 

When once this drawing-room question is settled, 
there is not much need to expatiate about other 
forms of singing for Jesus. As we have opportu- 
nity we shall be willing to do good with our pleasant 
gift in any way or place, and it is wonderful what 
nice opportunities He makes for us. Whether to 
one little sick child or to a thousand listeners, ac- 
cording to the powers and openings granted, we 
shall take our happy position among those who 
minister with singing (i Chron. vi. 32). And in 
so far as we really do this unto the Lord, I air- 
quite sure He gives the hundred-fold now in this 
present time more than all the showy songs or self- 
gratifying performances we may have left for His 
sake. As we steadily tread this part of the path of 



@uv Voices kept for Seme. 65 

consecration, we shall find the difficulties left be- 
hind, and the real pleasantness of the way reached, 
and it will be a delight to say to oneself, 1 1 cannot 
sing the old songs ;' and though you have thought 
it quite enough to say, ' With my song will I please 
my friends/ especially if they happen to be pleased 
with a mildly sacred song or two, you will strike a 
higher and happier, a richer and purer note, and 
say with David, ' With my song will I praise Him' 
David said also, s My lips shall greatly rejoice when 
I sing unto Thee, and my soul, which Thou hast 
redeemed.' And you will find that this comes true. 

Singing for Jesus, our Saviour and King ; 

Singing for Jesus, the Lord whom we love ! 
All adoration we joyously bring, 

Longing to praise as they praise Him above. 

Singing for Jesus, our Master and Friend, 
Telling His love and His marvellous grace, — 

Love from eternity, love to the end, 

Love for the loveless, the sinful, and base. 

Singing for Jesus, and trying to win 

Many to love Him, and join in the song; 

Calling the weary and wandering in, 
Rolling the chorus of gladness along. 

Singing for Jesus, our Life and our Light ; 

Singing for Him as we press to the mark; 
Singing for Him when the morning is bright; 

Singing, still singing, for Him in the dark ! 

Singing for Jesus, our Shepherd and Guide; 

Singing for gladness of heart that He gives ; 
Singing for wonder and praise that He died ; 

Singing for blessing and joy that He lives ! 



66 Tkept for tbe Master's TSlse* 

Singing for Jesus, oh, singing with joy ; 

Thus will we praise Him, and tell out His love, 
Till He shall call us to brighter employ, 

Singing for Jesus for ever above. 



CHAPTER VI. 



©ur.Xtps ftept for 3esus. 

* * Keep my lips, that they may be 
Filled with messages from Thee? 

THE days are past for ever when we said, 
'Our lips are our own.' Now we know that 
they are not our own. 

And yet how many of my readers often have the 
miserable consciousness that they have ' spoken un- 
advisedly with their lips'! How many pray, 'Keep 
the door of my lips/ when the very last thing they 
think of expecting is that they will be kept ! They 
deliberately make up their minds that hasty words, 
or foolish words, or exaggerated words, according 
to their respective temptations, must and will slip 
out of that door, and that it can't be helped. The 
extent of the real meaning of their prayer was 
merely that not quite so many might slip out. As 
their faith went no farther, the answer went no 
farther, and so the door was not kept. 

Do let us look the matter straight in the face. 
Either we have committed our lips to our Lord, or 



©ur Xtps feept for Sesus* 67 

we have not. This question must be settled first. 
If not, oh, do not let another hour pass ! Take 
them to Jesus, and ask Him to take them. 

But when you have committed them to Him, it 
comes to this, — is He able or is He not able to keep 
that which you have committed to Him? If He is 
not able, of course you may as well give up at 
once, for your own experience has abundantly 
proved that you are not able, so there is no help for 
you. But if He is able — nay, thank God there is 
no Hf* on this side! — say, rather, as He is able, 
where was this inevitable necessity of perpetual 
failure ? You have been fancying yourself virtually 
doomed and fated to it, and therefore you have 
gone on in it, while all the time His arm was not 
shortened that it could not save, but you have been 
limiting the Holy One of Israel. Honestly, now, 
have you trusted Him to keep your lips this day ? 
Trust necessarily implies expectation that what we 
have entrusted will be kept. If you have not ex- 
pected Him to keep, you have not trusted. You 
may have tried, and tried very hard, but you have 
not trusted, and therefore you have not been kept, 
and your lips have been the snare of your soul 
(Prov. xviii. 7). 

Once I heard a beautiful prayer which I can never 
forget ; it was this : ' Lord, take my lips, and speak 
through them ; take my mind, and think through 
it ; take my heart, and set it on fire. ' And this is 
the .way the Master keeps the lips of His servants, 
by so filling their hearts with His love that the out- 
flow cannot be unloving, by so filling their thoughts 
that the utterance cannot beun-Christ-like. There 



68 ikept for tbe flfcaster'6 Wse. 

must be filling before there can be pouring out ; 
and if there is filling, there must be pouring out, 
for He hath said, 'Out of the abundance of the 
heart the mouth speaketh.' 

But I think we should look for something more 
direct and definite than this. We are not all called 
to be the King's ambassadors, but all who have 
heard the messages of salvation for themselves are 
called to be ' the Lord's messengers/ and day by 
day, as He gives us opportunity, we are to deliver 
'the Lord's message unto the people.' That mes- 
sage, as committed to Haggai, was, ' I am with you, 
saith the Lord.' Is there not work enough for any 
lifetime in unfolding and distributing that one mes- 
sage to His own people ? Then, for those who are 
still far off, we have that equally full message from 
our Lord to give out, which He has condensed for 
us into the one word, i Come !' 

It is a specially sweet part of His dealings with 
His messengers that He always gives us the message 
for ourselves first. It is what He has first told us 
in darkness — that is, in the secrecy of our own 
rooms, or at least of our own hearts — that He bids 
us speak in light. And so the more we sit at His 
feet and watch to see what He has to say to our- 
selves, the more we shall have to tell to others. He 
does not send us out with sealed despatches, which 
we know nothing about, and with which we have no 
concern. 

There seems a seven-fold sequence in His filling 
the lips of His messengers. First, they must be 
purified. The live coal from off the altar must be 
laid upon them, and He must say, ' Lo, this hath 



<S>ur Xtps kept tor 5esus* 69 

touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, 
and thy sin is purged. ' Then He will create the 
fruit of them, and this seems to be the great mes- 
sage of peace, ' Peace to him that is far off, and to 
him that is near, saith the Lord ; and I will heal 
him* (see Isa. lvii. 19). Then comes the prayer, 
'O Lord, open Thou my lips/ and its sure fulfil- 
ment. For then come in the promises, i Behold, I 
have put My words in thy mouth/ and, ' They shall 
withal be fitted in thy lips/ Then, of course, * the 
lips of the righteous feed many/ for the food is the 
Lord's own giving. Everything leads up to praise, 
and so we come next to ' My mouth shall praise 
Thee with joyful lips, when I remember Thee.' 
And lest we should fancy that ' when ' rather implies 
that it is not, or cannot be, exactly always, we find 
that the meditation of Jesus throws this added light 
upon it, i By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacri- 
fice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit 
of our lips, giving thanks to ' (margin, confessing) 
'His name/ 

Does it seem a coming down from the mount to 
glance at one of our King's commandments, which 
is specially needful and applicable to this matter of 
our lips being kept for Him ? ' Watch and pray, 
that ye enter not into temptation. ' None of His 
commands clash with or supersede one another. 
Trusting does not supers de watching ; it does but 
complete and effectuate it. Unwatchful trust is a 
delusion, and untrustful watching is in vain. There- 
fore let us not either wilfully or carelessly enter mto 
temptation, whether of place, or person, or topic, 
which has any tendency to endanger the keeping of 



7© ftept tor tbe a&astet's TUse* 

our lips for Jesus. Let us pray that grace may be 
more and more poured into our lips as it was into 
His, so that our speech may be alway with grace. 
May they be pure, and sweet, and lovely, even as 
* His lips, like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling 
myrrh. ' 

We can hardly consider the keeping of our lips 
without recollecting that upon them, more than all 
else (though not exclusively of all else), depends 
that greatest of our responsibilities, our influence. 
We have no choice in the matter ; we cannot evade 
or avoid it ; and there is no more possibility of our 
limiting it, or even tracing its limits, than there is 
of setting a bound to the far-vibrating sound-waves, 
or watching their flow through the invisible air. 
Not one sentence that passes these lips of ours but 
must be an invisibly prolonged influence, not dying 
away into silence, but living away into the words 
and deeds of others. The thought would not be quite 
so oppressive if we could know what we have done 
and shall be continuing to do by what we have 
said. But we never can, as a matter of fact. We 
may trace it a little way, and get a glimpse of some 
results for good or evil ; but we never can see any 
more of it than we can see of a shooting star flash- 
ing through the night with a momentary revelation 
of one step of its strange path. Even if the next 
instant plunges it into apparent annihilation as it 
strikes the atmosphere of the earth, we know that 
it is not really so, but that its mysterious material 
and force must be added to the complicated ma- 
terials and forces with which it has come in con- 



©ut Xfps ftept for Sesus, 71 

tact, with a modifying power none the less real be- 
cause it is beyond our ken. And this is not com- 
paring a great thing with a small, but a small thing 
with a great. For what is material force compared 
with moral force ? what are gases, and vapours, and 
elements, compared with souls and the eternity for 
which they are preparing? 

We all know that there is influence exerted by a 
person's mere presence, without the utterance of a 
single word. We are conscious of this every day. 
People seem to carry an atmosphere with them, 
which must be breathed by those whom they ap- 
proach. Some carry an atmosphere in which all 
unkind thoughts shrivel up and cannot grow into 
expression. Others carry one in which * thoughts 
of Christ and things divine* never seem able to 
flourish. Have you not felt how a happy conversa- 
tion about the things we love best is checked, or 
even strangled, by the entrance of one who is not 
in sympathy? Outsiders have not a chance of 
ever really knowing what delightful intercourse we 
have one with another about these things, because 
their very presence chills and changes it. On the 
other hand, how another person's incoming fresh- 
ens and develops it and warms us all up, and seems 
to give us, without the least conscious effort, a sort 
of lift I 

If even unconscious and involuntary influence is 
such a power, how much greater must it be when 
the recognised power of words is added ! 

It has often struck me as a matter of observa- 
tion, that open profession adds force to this influ- 
ence, on whichever side it weighs ; and also that it 



72 Utept tor tbe /toaster's Wee. 

has the effect of making many a word and act, 
which might in other hands have been as nearly 
neutral as anything can be, tell with by no means 
neutral tendency on the wrong side. The question 
of Eliphaz comes with great force when applied to 
one who desires or professes to be consecrated alto- 
gether, life and lips: ' Should he reason with un- 
profitable talk, and with speeches wherewith one 
can do no good?' There is our standard! Idle 
words, which might have fallen comparatively 
harmlessly from one who had never named the 
Name of Christ, may be a stumbling-block to in- 
quirers, a sanction to thoughtless juniors, and a 
grief to thoughtful seniors, when they come from 
lips which are professing to feed many. Even in- 
telligent talk on general subjects by such a one may 
be a chilling disappointment to some craving heart, 
which had indulged the hope of getting help, com- 
fort, or instruction in the things of God by listen- 
ing to the conversation. It may be a lost oppor- 
tunity of giving and gaining no one knows how 
much! 

How well I recollect this disappointment to my- 
self, again and again, when a mere child ! In 
those early seeking days I never could understand 
why, sometimes, a good man whom I heard preach 
or speak as if he loved Christ very much, talked 
about all sorts of other things when he came back 
from church or missionary meeting. I did so wish he 
would have talked about the Saviour, whom I wanted, 
but had not found. It would have been so much 
more interesting even to the apparently thoughtless 
and merry little girl. How could he help it, I 



0\xv Xips ftept for Jesus* 73 

wondered, if he cared for that Pearl of Great Price 
as I was sure I should care for it if I could only find 
it ! And oh, why didn't they ever talk to me about 
it, instead of about my lessons or their little girls 
at home? They did not know how their conversa- 
tion was observed and compared with their sermon 
or speech, and how a hungry little soul went empty 
away from the supper table. 

The lips of younger Christians may cause, in their 
turn, no less disappointment. One sorrowful lesson 
I can never forget ; and I will tell the story in hope 
that it may save others from causes of similar re- 
gret. During a summer visit just after I had left 
school, a class of girls about my own age came to 
me a few times for an hour's singing. It was very 
pleasant indeed, and the girls were delighted with 
the hymns. They listened to all I had to say about 
time and expression, and not with less attention to 
the more shyly-ventured remarks about the words. 
Sometimes I accompanied them afterwards down 
the avenue; and whenever I met any of them I had 
smiles and plenty of kindly words for each, which 
they seemed to appreciate immensely. A few years 
afterwards I sat by the bedside of one of these girls 
— the most gifted of them all with both heart and 
head. She had been led by a wonderful way, and 
through, long and deep suffering, into far clearer 
light than I enjoyed, and had witnessed for Christ 
in more ways than one, and far more brightly than 
I had ever done. She told me how sorrowfully and 
eagerly she was seeking Jesus at the time of those 
singing classes. And I never knew it, because 
I never asked, and she was too shy to speak first 1 



74 "Kept for tbe jfl&aster's TUse* 

But she told me more, and every word was a pang 
to me, — how she used to linger in the avenue on 
those summer evenings, longing that I would speak 
to her about the Saviour ; how she hoped, week after 
week, that I would just stretch out a hand to help 
her, just say one little word that might be God's 
message of peace to her, instead of the pleasant, 
general remarks about the nice hymns and tunes. 
And I never did ! And she went on for months, I 
think for years, after, without the light and gladness 
which it might have been my privilege to bring to 
her life. God chose other means, for the souls that 
He has given to Christ cannot be lost because of 
the unfaithfulness of a human instrument. But she 
said, and the words often ring in my ears when I am 
tempted to let an opportunity slip, ' Ah, Miss F., I 
ought to have been yours ! 9 

Yes, it is true enough that we should show forth 
His praise not only with our lips, but in our lives; 
but with very many Christians the other side of the 
prayer wants praying — they want rousing up even to 
wish to show it forth not only in their lives but with 
their lips. I wonder how many, even of those who 
read this, really pray, ' O Lord, open Thou my lips, 
and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.' 

And when opened, oh, how much one does want 
to have them so kept for Jesus that He may be free 
to make the most of them, not letting them render 
second-rate and indirect service when they might be 
doing direct and first-rate service to His cause and 
kingdom ! It is terrible how much less is done for 
Him than might be done, in consequence of the 
specious notion that if what we are doing or saying 



©ut Xtps ftept for Jesus* 75 

is not bad, we are doing good in a certain way, and 
therefore may be quite easy about it. We should 
think a man rather foolish if he went on doing work 
which earned five shillings a week, when he might 
just as well do work in the same establishment and 
under the same master which would bring him in 
five pounds a week. But we should pronounce him 
shamefully dishonest and dishonourable if he accept- 
ed such handsome wages as the five pounds, and yet 
chose to do work worth only five shillings, excusing 
himself by saying that it was work all the same, and 
somebody had better do it. Do we not act some- 
thing like this when we take the lower standard, 
and spend our strength in just making ourselves 
agreeable and pleasant, creating a general good im- 
pression in favour of religion, showing that we can 
be all things to all men, and that one who is sup- 
posed to be a citizen of the other world can be very 
well up in all that concerns this world ? This may 
be good, but is there nothing better? What does it 
profit if we do make this favourable impression on 
an outsider, if we go no farther and do not use the 
influence gained to bring him right inside the fold, 
inside the only ark of safety ? People are not con- 
verted by this sort of work ; at any rate, / never 
met or heard of any one. ' He thinks it better for 
his quiet influence to tell ! ■ said an affectionately 
excusing relative of one who had plenty of special 
opportunities of soul-winning, if he had only used 
his lips as well as his life for his Master. ' And how 
many souls have been converted to God by his 
" quiet influence M all these years ? ' was my reply. 
And to that there was no answer ! For the silent 



76 Iftept for tbe Master's THae* 

shining was all very beautiful in theory, but not one 
of the many souls placed specially under his in- 
fluence had been known to be brought out of dark- 
ness into marvellous light. If they had, they must 
have been known, for such light can't help being 
seen. 

When one has even a glimmer of the tremendous 
difference between having Christ and being without 
Christ ; when one gets but one shuddering glimpse 
of what eternity is, and of what it must mean, as 
well as what it may mean, without Christ; when 
one gets but a flash of realization of the tremendous 
fact that all these neighbours of ours, rich and poor 
alike, will have to spend that eternity either with 
Him or without Him, — it is hard, very hard indeed, 
to understand how a man or woman can believe 
these things at all, and make no effort for anything 
beyond the temporal elevation of those around, 
sometimes not even beyond their amusements ! 
' People must have entertainment/ they urge. I do 
not find that must in the Bible, but I do find, ' We 
must all stand before the judgment- seat of Christ.' 
And if you have any sort of belief in that, how can 
you care to use those lips of yours, which might be 
a fountain of life to the dying souls before you, 
merely to ' entertain ' them at your penny reading 
or other entertainment ? As you sow, so you reap. 
The amusing paper is read, or the lively ballad re- 
cited, or the popular song sung, and you reap your 
harvest of laughter or applause, and of complacence 
at your success in ( entertaining ' the people. And 
there it ends, when you might have sown words 
from which you and they should reap fruit unto life 



©ur Xips ftept for Scene. 77 

eternal. Is this worthy work for one who has been 
bought with such a price that he must say, 

* Love so amazing, so divine, 
Demands my soul, my life, my all ' ? 

So far from yielding ' all ' to that rightful demand 
of amazing love, he does not even yield the fruit of 
his lips to it, much less the lips themselves. I can- 
not refrain from adding, that even this lower aim 
of ' entertaining ' is by no means so appreciated as 
is supposed. As a cottager of no more than aver- 
age sense and intelligence remarked, ' It was all so 
trifling at the reading; I wish gentlefolks would 
believe that poor people like something better than 
what's just to make them laugh/ After all, nothing 
really pays like direct, straightforward, uncompro- 
mising words about God and His works and word. 
Nothing else ever made a man say, as a poor Irish- 
man did when he heard the Good News for the first 
time, ' Thank ye, sir; you've taken the hunger off 
us to-day ! ' 

Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord ; 
what about ours ? Well, they are all uttered before 
the Lord in one sense, whether we will or no ; for 
there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, Thou, O 
Lord, knowest it altogether ! How solemn is this 
thought, but how sweet does it become when our 
words are uttered consciously before the Lord as 
we walk in the light of His perpetual presence ! 
Oh that we may so walk, that we may so speak, with 
kept feet and kept lips, trustfully praying, ' Let the 
meditation of my heart and the words of my mouth 



78 Iftept for tbe /toaster's TUse* 

be alway acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my 
Strength and my Redeemer ! ' 

Bearing in mind that it is not only the words 
which pass their lightly-hinged portal, but our lit- 
eral lips which are to be kept for Jesus, it cannot 
be out of place, before closing this chapter, to sug- 
gest that they open both ways. What passes in 
should surely be considered as well as what passes 
out. And very many of us are beginning to see 
that the command, ' Whether ye eat or drink, or 
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God/ is 
not fully obeyed when we drink, merely because 
we like it, what is the very greatest obstacle to that 
glory in this realm of England. What matter that 
we prefer taking it in a more refined form, if the 
thing itself is daily and actively and mightily work- 
ing misery, and crime, and death, and destruction 
to thousands, till the cry thereof seems as if it 
must pierce the very heavens ! And so it does — 
sooner, a great deal, than it pierces the walls of our 
comfortable dining-room ! I only say here, you 
who have said, 'Take my lips/ stop and repeat 
that prayer next time you put that to your lips 
which is binding men and women hand and foot, 
and delivering them over, helpless, to Satan ! Let 
those words pass once more from your heart out 
through your lips, and I do not think you will feel 
comfortable in letting the means of such infernal 
work pass in through them. 



©ur Silver ano <5olo ftept for Jesus. 79 



CHAPTER VII. 



©ur Silver ano (Mo kept for 3ems. 

1 Keep my silver and my gold ; 
Not a mite would /withhold. 1 

'HPHE silver and the gold is Mine, saith the 

A Lord of Hosts.' Yes, every coin we have 

is literally our ' Lord's money.' Simple belief of 

this fact is the stepping-stone to full consecration of 

what He has given us, whether much or little. 

1 Then you mean to say we are never to spend 
anything on ourselves?' Not so. Another fact 
must be considered, — the fact that our Lord has 
given us our bodies as a special personal charge, 
and that we are responsible for keeping these bodies, 
according to the means given and the work re- 
quired, in working order for Him. This is part of 
our ' own work. ' A master entrusts a workman 
with a delicate machine, with which his appointed 
work is to be done. He also provides him with a sum 
of money with which he is to procure all that may be 
necessary for keeping the machine in thorough repair. 
Is it not obvious that it is the man's distinct duty 
to see to this faithfully ? Would he not be failing ia 



So iftept for tbe Master's TSLse. 

duty if he chose to spend it all on something for 
somebody else's work, or on a present for his mas- 
ter, fancying that would please him better, while 
the machine is creaking and wearing for want of a 
little oil, or working badly for want of a new band 
or screw ? Just so, we are to spend what is really 
needful on ourselves, because it is our charge to do 
so ; but not for ourselves, because we are not our 
own, but our Master's. He who knoweth our frame, 
knows its needs of rest and medicine, food and 
clothing ; and the procuring of these for our own 
entrusted bodies should be done just as much ' for 
Jesus ' as the greater pleasure of procuring them for 
some one else. Therefore there need be no quib- 
bling over the assertion that consecration is not 
real and complete while we are looking upon a 
single shilling as our own to do what we like with. 
Also the principle is exactly the same, whether we 
are spending pence or pounds; it is our Lord's 
money, and must not be spent without reference to 
Him. 

When we have asked Him to take, and continually 
trust Him to keep our money, ' shopping ' becomes 
a different thing. We look up to our Lord for 
guidance to lay out His money prudently and 
rightly, and as He would have us lay it out. The 
gift or garment is selected consciously under His 
eye, and with conscious reference to Him as our 
own dear Master, for whose sake we shall give it, 
or in whose service we shall wear it, and whose own 
silver or gold we shall pay for it, and then it is all 
right. 

But have you found out that it is one of the se- 



©ur Silver an£> <3olD kept for Jesus* 81 

crets of the Lord, that when any of His dear chil- 
dren turn aside a little bit after having once entered 
the blessed path of true and conscious consecra- 
tion, He is sure to send them some little punish- 
ment? He will not let us go back without a sharp, 
even if quite secret, reminder. Go and spend ever 
such a little without reference to Him after you have 
once pledged the silver and gold entirely to Him, 
and see if you are not in some way rebuked for it ! 
Very often by being permitted to find that you have 
made a mistake in your purchase, or that in some 
way it does not prosper. If you ' observe these 
things,' you will find that the more closely we are 
walking with our Lord, the more immediate and 
unmistakeable will be His gracious rebukes when we 
swerve in any detail of the full consecration to 
which He has called us. And if you have already 
experienced and recognised this part of His per- 
sonal dealing with us, you will know also how we 
love and bless Him for it. 

There is always a danger that just because we say 
4 all,' we may practically fall shorter than if we had 
only said 'some/ but said it very definitely. God 
recognises this, and provides against it in many de- 
partments. For instance, though our time is to be 
* all ' for Him, yet He solemnly sets apart the one 
day in seven which is to be specially for Him. 
Those who think they know better than God, and 
profess that every day is a Sabbath, little know 
what floodgates of temptation they are opening by 
being so very wise above what is written. God 
knows best, and that should be quite enough for 



82 utept tor tbe /toaster's TUse* 

every loyal heart. So, as to money, though we 
place it all at our Lord's disposal, and rejoice to 
spend it all for Him directly or indirectly, yet I am 
quite certain it is a great help and safeguard, and, 
what is more, a matter of simple obedience to the 
spirit of His commands, to set aside a definite and 
regular proportion of our income or receipts for 
His direct service. It is a great mistake to suppose 
that the law of giving the tenth to God is merely 
Levitical. ' Search and look ' for yourselves, and 
you will find that it is, like the Sabbath, a far older 
rule, running all through the Bible,* and endorsed, 
not abrogated, by Christ Himself. For, speaking 
of tithes, He said, ' These ought ye to have done, 
and not to leave the other undone.' To dedicate the 
tenth of whatever we have is mere duty; charity 
begins beyond it ; free-will offerings and thank- 
offerings beyond that again. 

First-fruits, also, should be thus specially set 
apart. This, too, we find running all through the 
Bible. There is a tacit appeal to our gratitude in 
the suggestion of them, — the very word implies 
bounty received and bounty in prospect. Bringing 
' the first of the first-fruits into the house of the Lord 
thy God,' was like ' saying grace ' for all the plenty 
He was going to bestow on the faithful Israelite. 
Something of gladness, too, seems always implied. 
1 The day of the first-fruits ' was to be a day of re- 
joicing (compare Num. xxviii. 26 with Deut. xvi. 

* See Gen. xiv. 20, xxviii. 22 ; Lev. xxvii. 30, 32 ; Num. 
xviii. 21; Deut. xiv. 22; 2 Chron. xxxi. 5, 6, 12; Neh. x. 37, 
xii. 44, xiii. 12 ; Mai. iii. 8, 10; Matt, xxiii. 23 ; Luke xi. 42 ; 
I Cor. xvi. 2 ; Heb. vii. 8. 



J, 



Qm Silver anD (Sold kept for Seeus. S3 

10, 11). There is also an appeal to loyalty: we 
are commanded to honoitr the Lord with the first- 
fruits of all our increase. And that is the way 
to prosper, for the next word is, 'So shall thy 
barns be filled with plenty.' The friend who first 
called my attention to this command, said that the 
setting apart first-fruits — making a proportion for 
God's work a first charge upon the income — 
always seemed to bring a blessing on the rest, 
and that since this had been systematically done, it 
actually seemed to go farther than when not thus 
lessened. 

Presenting our first-fruits should be a peculiarly 
delightful act, as they are themselves the emblem 
of our consecrated relationship to God. For of 
His own will begat He us by the word of truth, 
that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His 
creatures. How sweet and hallowed and richly 
emblematic our little acts of obedience in this mat- 
ter become, when we throw this light upon them ! 
And how blessedly they may remind us of the 
heavenly company, singing, as it were, a new song 
before the throne ; for they are the first-fruits unto 
God and to the Lamb. 

Perhaps we shall find no better plan of detailed 
and systematic setting apart than the New Testa- 
ment one : ' Upon the first day of the week let 
every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath 
prospered him.' The very act of literally fulfilling 
this apostolic command seems to bring a blessing 
with it, as all simple obedience does. I wish, dear 
friends, you would try it ! You will find it a sweet 
reminder on His own day of this part of your con- 



84 Ikept tor tbe /toaster's rase. 

secration. You will find it an immense help in 
making the most of your little charities. The 
regular inflow will guide the outflow, and ensure 
your always having something for any sudden call 
for your Master's poor or your Master's cause. Do 
not say you are ' afraid you could not keep to it.' 
What has a consecrated life to do with being 
' afraid ' ? Some of us could tell of such sweet and 
singular lessons of trust in this matter, that they 
are written in golden letters of love on our memo- 
ries. Of course there will be trials of our faith in 
this, as well as in everything else. But every trial 
of our faith is but a trial of His faithfulness, and 
is 'much more precious than gold which per- 
isheth.' 

' What about self-denial? ' some reader will say. 
Consecration does not supersede this, but trans- 
figures it. Literally, a consecrated life is and must 
be a life of denial of self. But all the effort and 
pain of it is changed into very delight. We love 
our Master ; we know, surely and absolutely, that 
He is listening and watching our every word and 
way, and that He has called us to the privilege of 
walking 'worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.' 
And in so far as this is a reality to us, the identical 
things which are still stM-dental in one sense, be- 
come actual sttf-delight in another. It may be 
self-denial to us to turn away from something 
within reach of our purse which it would be very 
convenient or pleasant to possess. But if the 
Master lifted the veil, and revealed Himself stand- 
ing at our side, and let us hear His audible voice 
asking us to reserve the price of it for His treasury, 



©ur Silver anD <3oR> fcept tor Jesus, 85 

should we talk about self-denial then ? Should we 
not be utterly ashamed to think of it? or rather, 
should we, for one instant, think about self or self- 
denial at all ? Would it not be an unimaginable 
joy to do what He asked us to do with that money ? 
But as long as His own unchangeable promise 
stands written in His word for us, ' Lo, I am with 
you alway, we may be sure that He is with us, and 
that His eye is as certainly on our opened or half- 
opened purse as it was on the treasury, when He 
sat over against it and saw the two mites cast in. 
So let us do our shopping ' as seeing Him who is 
invisible/ 

It is important to remember that there is no 
much or little in God's sight, except as relatively 
to our means and willingness. ' For if there be 
first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that 
a man hath, and not according to that he hath 
not. ' He knows what we have not, as well as what 
we have. He knows all about the Jow wages in 
one sphere, and the small allowance, or the fixed 
income with rising prices in another. And it is not 
a question of paying to God what can be screwed 
out of these, but of giving Him all, and then hold- 
ing all at His disposal, and taking His orders about 
the disposal of all. 

But I do not see at all how self-indulgence and 
needless extravagance can possibly co-exist with 
true consecration. If we really never do go with- 
out anything for the Lord's sake, but, just because 
He has graciously given us means, always supply 
for ourselves not only every need but ' every 
notion/ I think it is high time we looked into 



86 -Kept tor the Master's TSLze. 

the matter before God. Why should only those 
who have limited means have the privilege of offer- 
ing to their Lord that which has really cost them 
something to offer ? Observe, it is not merely 
going without something we would naturally like to 
have or do, but going without it for Jesus 1 sake. 
Not, ' I will go without it, because, after all, I can't 
very well afford it ;' or, ' because I really ought to 
subscribe to so and so;' or, 'because I daresay I 
shall be glad I have not spent the money :' but, ' I 
will do without it, because I do want to do a little 
more for Him who so loves me — just that much 
more than I could do if I did this other thing.' I 
fancy this is more often the heart language of those 
who have to cut and contrive, than of those who 
are able to give liberally without any cutting and 
contriving at all. The very abundance of God's 
good gifts too often hinders from the privilege and 
delight of really doing without something super- 
fluous or comfortable or usual, that they may give 
just that much more to their Lord. What a pity ! 
The following quotation may (I hope it will), 
touch some conscience: — ( A gentleman once told 
us that his wine bill was ^ioo a year — more than 
enough to keep a Scripture reader always at work 
in some populous district. And it is one of the 
countless advantages, of total abstinence that it at 
once sets free a certain amount of money for such 
work. Smoking, too, is a habit not only injuri- 
ous to the health in a vast majority of cases, and, 
to our mind, very unbecoming in a " temple of the 
Holy Ghost," but also one which squanders money 
which might be used for the Lord. Expenses in 



©ur Silver ano 0olD kept for Jesus* 87 

dress might in most people be curtailed ; expensive 
tastes should be denied ; and simplicity in all habits 
of life should be a mark of the followers of Him 
who had not where to lay His head. ' 

And again : ' The self-indulgence of wealthy 
Christians, who might largely support the Lord's 
work with what they lavish upon their houses, their 
tables, or their personal expenditure, is very sad to 
see.'* 

Here the question of jewellery seems to come in. 
Perhaps it was an instance of the gradual showing 
of the details of consecration, illustrated on page 
21, but I will confess that when I wrote i Take my 
silver and my gold/ it never dawned on me that 
anything was included beyond the coin of the 
realm ! But the Lord ' leads on softly/ and a good 
many of us have been shown some capital bits of 
unenclosed but easily enclosable ground, which 
have yielded ' pleasant fruit.' Yes, very pleasant 
fruit ! It is wonderfully nice to light upon some- 
thing that we really never thought of as a possible 
gift to our Lord, and just to give it, straight away, 
to Him. I do not press the matter, but I do ask my 
lady friends to give it fair and candid and prayer- 
ful consideration. Which do you really care most 
about — a diamond on your finger, or a star in the 
Redeemer's kingdom, shining for ever and ever? 
That is what it comes to, and there I leave it. 

On the other hand, it is very possible to be fairly 
faithful in much, and yet unfaithful in that which 
is least. We may have thought about our gold and 

* Christian Progress y vol. iii. pp. 25, 26. 



88 iRept for tbe /toaster's TELee. 

silver, and yet have been altogether thoughtless 
about our rubbish ! Some have a habit of hoarding 
away old garments, ' pieces/ remnants, and odds 
and ends generally, under the idea that they i will 
come in useful some day ;' very likely setting it up 
as a kind of mild virtue, backed by that noxious 
old saying, ' Keep it by you seven years, and you'll 
find a use for it.' And so the shabby things get 
shabbier, and moth and dust doth corrupt, and 
the drawers and places get choked and crowded ; 
and meanwhile all this that is sheer rubbish to 
you might be made useful at once, to a degree 
beyond what you would guess, to some poor 
person. 

It would be a nice variety for the clever fingers 
of a lady's maid to be set to work to do up old 
things ; or some tidy woman may be found in al- 
most every locality who knows how to contrive 
children's things out of what seems to you only fit 
for the rag-bag, either for her own little ones or 
those of her neighbours. 

My sister trimmed 70 or 80 hats every spring for 
several years with the contents of friends' rubbish 
drawers, thus relieving dozens of poor mothers who 
liked their children to ' go tidy on Sunday,' and 
also keeping down finery in her Sunday school. 
Those who literally fulfilled her request for * rub- 
bish ' used to marvel at the results. 

Little scraps of carpet, torn old curtains, faded 
blinds, and all such gear, go a wonderfully long 
way towards making poor cottagers and old or sick 
people comfortable. I never saw anything in this 
' rubbish ' line yet that could not be turned to good 



Om Silver anfc (BolD ftept for Sems. 89 

account somehow, with a little considering of the 
poor and their discomforts. 

I wish my lady reader would just leave this book 
now, and go straight up-stairs and have a good 
rummage at once, and see what can be thus cleared 
out. If she does not know the right recipients at 
first hand, let her send it oif to the nearest working 
clergyman's wife, and see how gratefully it will be 
received ! For it is a great trial to workers among 
the poor not to be able to supply the needs they 
see. Such supplies are far more useful than treble 
their small money value. 

Just a word of earnest pleading for needs, closely 
veiled, but very sore, which might be wonderfully 
lightened if this wardrobe over-hauling were system- 
atic and faithful. There are hundreds of poor 
clergymen's families to whom a few old garments 
or any household oddments are as great a charity 
as to any of the poor under their charge. There 
are two Societies for aiding these with such gifts, 
under initials which are explained in the Reports ; 
the P.P.C. Society — Secretary, Miss Breay, Batten- 
hall Place, Worcester ; and the A.F.D. Society — Sec- 
retary, Miss Hinton, 4 York Place, Clifton. I only 
ask my lady friends to send for a report to either of 
these devoted secretaries ; and if their hearts are not 
so touched by the cases of brave and bitter need that 
they go forthwith to wardrobes and drawers to see 
what can be spared and sent, they are colder and 
harder than I give Englishwomen credit for. 

There is no bondage in consecration. The two 
things are opposites, and cannot co- exist, much less 



90 'Kept for tbe Master's Tflse. 

mingle. We should suspect our consecration, and 
come afresh to our great Counsellor about it, di- 
rectly we have any sense of bondage. As long as 
we have an unacknowledged feeling of fidget about 
our account-book, and a smothered wondering what 
and how much we ' ought 1 to give, and a hushed- 
up wishing the thing had not been put quite so 
strongly before us, depend upon it we have not said 
unreservedly, ' Take my silver and my gold. ' And 
how can the Lord keep what He has not been sin- 
cerely asked to take ? 

Ah ! if we had stood at the foot of the Cross, and 
watched the tremendous payment of our redemp- 
tion with the precious blood of Christ, — if we had 
seen that awful price told out, drop by drop, from 
His own dear patient brow and torn hands and 
feet, till it was ALL paid, and the central word of 
eternity was uttered, * It is finished /' should we not 
have been ready to say, 'Not a mite will I withhold ! ' 

My Jewels. 

1 Shall I hold them back — my jewels ? 

Time has travelled many a day 
Since I laid them by for ever, 

Safely locking them away ; 
And I thought them yielded wholly, 

When I dared no longer wear 
Gems contrasting, oh, so sadly ! 

With the adorning I would bear. 

' Shall I keep them still — my jewels ? 
Shall I, can I yet withhold 
From that living, loving Saviour 
Aught of silver or of gold ? 



©ur Intellects kept tor Jesus* n 

Gold so needed, that His gospel 

May resound from sea to sea ; 
Can I know Christ's service lacketh, 

Yet forget His " unto Me" ! 

4 No; I lay them down — my jewels, 
Truly on the altar now. 
Stay ! I see a vision passing 
Of a gem-encircled brow : 
Heavenly treasure worn by Jesus, 

Souls won through my gift outpoured ; 
Freely, gladly I will offer 

Jewels thus to crown my Lord ! ' 

From Woman's Work. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



©ur Unteilecta kept for 3eme> 

* Keep my intellect, and ttse 
Every power as Thou shall choose? 

THERE are two distinct sets of temptations 
which assail those who have, or think they 
have, rather less, and those who have, or think they 
have, rather more than an average share of intel- 
lect ; while those who have neither less nor more 
are generally open in some degree to both. The 
refuge and very present help from both is the same. 
The intellect, whether great or small, which is com- 
mitted to the Lord's keeping, will be kept and will 
be used by Him. 



92 IKept for tbe Master's T&se. 

The former class are tempted to think themselves 
excused from effort to cultivate and use their small 
intellectual gifts; to suppose they cannot or need 
not seek to win souls, because they are not so clever 
and apt in speech as So-and-so ; to attribute to want 
of gift what is really want of grace ; to hide the one 
talent because it is not five. Let me throw out a 
thought or two for these. 

Which is greatest, gifts or grace? Gifts are 
given i to every man according to his several 
ability.* That is, we have just as much given as 
God knows we are able to use, and what He knows 
we can best use for Him. ' But unto every one of us 
is given grace according to the measure of the gift 
of Christ. ■ Claiming and using that royal measure 
of grace, you may, and can, and will do more for 
God than the mightiest intellect in the world with- 
out it. For which, in the clear light of His Word, 
is likely to be most effectual, the natural ability 
which at its best and fullest, without Christ, ' can 
do nothing* (observe and believe that word!), or 
the grace of our Almighty God and the power of 
the Holy Ghost, which is as free to you as it ever 
was to any one ? 

If you are responsible for making use of your 
limited gift, are you not equally responsible for 
making use of the grace and power which are to be 
had for the asking, which are already yours in 
Christ, and which are not limited ? 

Also, do you not see that when there are great 
natural gifts, people give the credit to them, instead 
of to the grace which alone did the real work, and 
thus God is defrauded of the glory? So that, to 



Qm ITntellects ftept for Jesus, 93 

say it reverently, God can get more glory out of a 
feeble instrument, because then it is more obvious 
that the excellency of the power is of God and not 
of us. Will you not henceforth say, ' Most gladly, 
therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that 
the power of Christ may rest upon me ' ? 

Don't you really believe that the Holy Spirit is 
just as able to draw a soul to Jesus, if He will, by 
your whisper of the one word, 'Come, as by an 
eloquent sermon an hour long ? / do ! At the 
same time, as it is evidently God's way to work 
through these intellects of ours, we have no more 
right to expect Him to use a mind which we are 
wilfully neglecting, and taking no pains whatever to 
fit for His use, than I should have to expect you to 
write a beautiful inscription with my pen, if I would 
not take the trouble to wipe it and mend it. 

The latter class are tempted to rely on their 
natural gifts, and to act and speak in their own 
strength ; to go on too fast, without really looking 
up at every step, and for every word ; to spend 
their Lord's time in polishing up their intellects, 
nominally for the sake of influence and power, and 
so forth, while really, down at the bottom, it is for the 
sake of the keen enjoyment of the process; and 
perhaps, most of all, to spend the strength of these 
intellects ' for that which doth not profit,' in yield- 
ing to the specious snare of reading clever books 
'on both sides,' and eating deliberately of the tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil. 

The mere mention of these temptations should 
be sufficient appeal to conscience. If consecration 
is to be a reality anywhere, should it not be in the 



94 TCept for tbe Master's Tltee* 

very thing which you own as an extra gift from 
God, and which is evidently closest, so to speak, to 
His direct action, spirit upon spirit? And if the 
very strength of your intellect has been your weak- 
ness, will you not entreat Him to keep it hence- 
forth really and entirely for Himself? It is so good 
of Him to have given you something to lay at His 
feet; shall not this goodness lead you to lay it all 
there, and never hanker after taking it back for 
yourself or the world? Do you not feel that in 
very proportion to the gift you need the special 
keeping of it ? He may lead you by a way you 
know not in the matter ; very likely He will show 
you that you must be willing to be a fool for His 
sake first, before He will condescend to use you 
much for His glory. Will you look up into His 
face and say, * Not willing ' ? 

He who made every power can use every power 
— memory, judgment, imagination, quickness of ap- 
prehension or insight ; specialties of musical, poeti- 
cal, oratorical, or artistic faculty ; special tastes for 
reasoning, philosophy, history, natural science, or 
natural history, — all these may be dedicated to Him, 
sanctified by Him, and used by Him. /Whatever 
He has given, He will use, if we will let HimX 
Often, in the most unexpected ways, and at the 
most unexpected turns, something read or acquired 
long ago suddenly comes into use. We cannot fore- 
see what will thus 'come in useful'; but He knew, 
when He guided us to learn it, what it would be 
wanted for in His service. So may we not ask Him 
to bring His perfect foreknowledge to bear on all 






©ur ITntellecta ftept for Seen*. 9$ 

our mental training and storing? to guide us to 
read or study exactly what He knows there will be use 
for in the work to which He has called or will call us ? 

Nothing is more practically perplexing to a young 
Christian, whose preparation time is not quite over, 
or perhaps painfully limited, than to know what is 
most worth studying, what is really the best invest- 
ment of the golden hours, while yet the time is not 
come for the field of active work to be fully entered, 
and the < thoroughly furnishing ' of the mind is the 
evident path of present duty. Is not His name 
called 'Counsellor'? and will He not be faithful to 
the promise of His name in this, as w r ell as in all 
else ? 

The same applies to every subsequent stage. Only 
let us be perfectly clear about the principle that 
our intellect is not our own, either to cultivate, or 
to use, or to enjoy, and that Jesus Christ is our real 
and ever-present Counsellor, and then there will be 
no more worry about what to read and how much 
to read, and whether to keep up one's accomplish- 
ments, or one's languages, or one's 'o/ogies'/ If 
the Master has need of them, He will show us ; and 
if He has not, what need have we of them ? If we 
go forward without His leading, we may throw away 
some talent, or let it get too rusty for use, which 
would have been most valuable when other circum- 
stances arose or different work was given. We must 
not think that ' keeping ' means not using at all ! 
What we want is to have all our powers kept for 
His use. 

In this they will probably find far higher develop- 
ment than in any other sort of use. I know cases 



96 IRept for tbe /toaster's TUse. 

in which the effect of real consecration on mere 
mental development has been obvious and surprising 
to all around. Yet it is only a confirmation of what 
I believe to be a great principle, viz. that the Lord 
makes the most of whatever is unreservedly sur- 
rendered to Htm. There will always be plenty of 
waste in what we try to cut out for ourselves. But 
He wastes no material ! 



CHAPTER IX. 



©ur UXHUte ftept for Seeus. 

'Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine, 
For it is no longer mine. 1 

PERHAPS there is no point in which expecta- 
tion has been so limited by experience as this. 
We believe God is able to do for us just so much as 
He has already done, and no more. We take it for 
granted a line must be drawn somewhere ; and so 
we choose to draw it where experience ends, and 
faith would have to begin. Even if we have trusted 
and proved Him as to keeping our members and 
our minds, faith fails when we would go deeper and 
say, * Keep my will V And yet the only reason we 
have to give is, that though we have asked Him to 
take our will, we do not exactly find that it is al- 
together His, but that self-will crops up again and 






©ur "Mills kept for Jeaus* 97 

again. And whatever flaw there might be in this 
argument, we think the matter is quite settled by 
the fact that some whom we rightly esteem, and 
who are far better than ourselves, have the same 
experience, and do not even seem to think it right 
to hope for anything better. That is conclusive ! 
And the result of this, as of every other faithless 
conclusion, is either discouragement and depres- 
sion, or, still worse, acquiescence in an unyielded 
will, as something that can't be helped. 

Now let us turn from our thoughts to God's 
thoughts. Verily, they are not as ours ! He says 
He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
that we ask or think. Apply this here. We ask 
Him to take our wills and make them His. Does 
He or does He not mean what He says ? and if He 
does, should we not trust Him to do this thing that 
we have asked and longed for, and not less but 
more ? ' Is anything too hard for the Lord ? ' 
' Hath He said, and shall He not do it ? ' and if He 
gives us faith to believe that we have the petition 
that we desired of Him, and with it the unspeak- 
able rest of leaning our will wholly upon His love, 
what ground have we for imagining that this is 
necessarily to be a mere fleeting shadow, which is 
hardly to last an hour, but is necessarily to be ex- 
hausted ere the next breath of trial or temptation 
comes ? Does He mock our longing by acting as I 
have seen an older person act to a child, by accept- 
ing some trifling gift of no intrinsic value, just to 
please the little one, and then throwing it away as 
soon as the child's attention is diverted ? Is not 
the taking rather the pledge of the keeping, if we 



98 "Kept tor tbe /J&aster's TUse* 

will but entrust Him fearlessly with it ? We give 
Him no opportunity, so to speak, of proving His 
faithfulness to this great promise, because we will 
not fulfil the condition of reception, believing it. 
But we readily enough believe instead all that we 
hear of the unsatisfactory experience of others ! Or, 
start from another word. Job said, ' I know that 
Thou canst do everything,' and we turn round and 
say, ' Oh yes, everything except keeping my will ! ' 
Dare we add, ' And I know that Thou canst not do 
that ' ? Yet that is what is said every day, only in 
other words ; and if not said aloud, it is said in 
faithless hearts, and God hears it. What does 
i Almighty ' mean, if it does not mean, as we teach 
our little children, ' able to do everything' ? 

We have asked this great thing many a time, 
without, perhaps, realizing how great a petition we 
were singing, in the old morning hymn, ' Guard 
my first springs of thought and will ! ' That goes 
to the root of the matter, only it implies that the 
will has been already surrendered to Him, that it 
may be wholly kept and guarded. 

It may be that we have not sufficiently realized 
the sin of the only alternative. Our wills belong 
either to self or to God. It may seem a small and 
rather excusable sin in man's sight to be self-willed, 
but see in what a category of iniquity God puts it ! 
(2 Pet. ii. 10). And certainly we are without ex- 
cuse when we have such a promise to go upon as, 
' It is God that worketh in you both to will and to 
do of His pleasure.* How splendidly this meets our 
very deepest helplessness, — ' worketh in you to 
will!' Oh, let us pray for ourselves and for each 



Our HOUUs kept tor Sesua* 99 

other, that we may know ' what is the exceeding 
greatness of His power to usward who believe. ' It 
does not say, i to usward who fear and doubt ; ' for 
if we will not believe, neither shall we be estab- 
lished. If we will not believe what God says He 
can do, we shall see it with our eyes, but we shall 
not eat thereof. ' They could not enter in because 
of unbelief. ' 

It is most comforting to remember that the grand 
promise, t Thy people shall be willing in the day of 
Thy power/ is made by the Father to Christ Him- 
self. The Lord Jesus holds this promise, and God 
will fulfil it to Him. He will make us willing be- 
cause He has promised Jesus that He will do so. 
And what is being made willing, but having our 
will taken and kept ? 

All true surrender of the will is based upon love 
and knowledge of, and confidence in, the one to 
whom it is surrendered. We have the human 
analogy so often before our eyes, that it is the more 
strange we should be so slow to own even the possi- 
bility of it as to God. Is it thought anything so 
very extraordinary and high-flown, when a bride 
deliberately prefers wearing a colour which was not 
her own taste or choice, because her husband likes 
to see her in it ? Is it very unnatural that it is no 
distress to her to do what he asks her to do, or to go 
with him where he asks her to come, even without 
question or explanation, instead of doing what or 
going where she would undoubtedly have preferred 
if she did not know and love him ? Is it very sur- 
prising if this lasts beyond the wedding day, and if 
year after year she still finds it her greatest pleasure 



ioo iftept for tbe /toaster's THse* 

to please him, quite irrespective of what used to be 
her own ways and likings ? Yet in this case she is 
not helped by any promise or power on his part to 
make her wish what he wishes. But He who so 
wonderfully condescends to call Himself the Bride- 
groom of His church, and who claims our fullest 
love and trust, has promised and has power to work 
in us to will. Shall we not claim His promise and 
rely on His mighty power, and say, not self-con- 
fidently, but looking only unto Jesus — 

' Keep my will, for it is Thine; 
It shall be no longer mine ! ' 

Only in proportion as our own will is surren- 
dered, are we able to discern the splendour of 
God's will. 

For oh ! it is a splendour, 

A glow of majesty, 
A mystery of beauty 

If we will only see; 
A very cloud of glory 

Enfolding you and me. 

A splendour that is lighted 

At one transcendent flame, 
The wondrous Love, the perfect Love, 

Our Father's sweetest name ; 
For His Name and very Essence 

And His Will are all the same! 

Conversely, in proportion as we see this splen- 
dour of His will, we shall more readily or more 
fully surrender our own. Not until we have pre- 
sented our bodies a living sacrifice can we prove 



©uv TKIUlte ftept for Seme. 101 

what is that good, and perfect, and acceptable will 
of God. But in thus proving it, this continual pre- 
sentation will be more and more seen to be our 
reasonable service, and becomes more and more a 
joyful sacrifice of praise. 

The connection in Romans xii. 1,2, between our 
sacrifice which He so graciously calls acceptable to 
Himself, and our finding out that His will is ac- 
ceptable to ourselves, is very striking. One reason 
for this connection may be that only love can 
really understand love, and love on both sides is at 
the bottom of the whole transaction and its results. 
First, He loves us. Then the discovery of this 
leads us to love Him. Then, because He loves us, 
He claims us, and desires to have us wholly yielded 
to His will, so that the operations of love in and 
for us may find no hindrance. Then, because we 
love Him we recognise His claim and yield our- 
selves. Then, being thus yielded, He draws us 
nearer to Him,* and admits us, so to speak, into 
closer intimacy, so that we gain nearer and truer 
views of His perfections. Then the unity of these 
perfections becomes clearer to us. Now we not 
only see His justice and mercy flowing in an undi- 
vided stream from the cross of Christ, but we see 
that they never were divided, though the strange 
distortions of the dark, false glass of sin made them 
appear so, but that both are but emanations of 
God's holy love. Then having known and be- 
lieved this holy love, we see further that His will 

* ' Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come 
near'* (2 Chron. xxix. 31). 



102 -Kept for tbe Master's Tllse. 

is not a separate thing, but only love (and therefore 
all His attributes) in action ; love being the pri- 
mary essence of His being, and all the other at- 
tributes manifestations and combinations of that 
ineffable essence, for God is Love. Then this will 
of God which has seemed in old far-off days a stern 
and fateful power, is seen to be only love energized ; 
love saying, ' I will/ And when once we really 
grasp this (hardly so much by faith as by love 
itself), the will of God cannot be otherwise than 
acceptable, for it is no longer a question of trusting 
that somehow or other there is a hidden element of 
love in it, but of understanding that it is love ; no 
more to be dissociated from it than the power of the 
sun's rays can be dissociated from their light and 
warmth. And love recognised must surely be love 
accepted and reciprocated. So, as the fancied 
sternness of God's will is lost in His love, the stub- 
bornness of our will becomes melted in that love, 
and lost in our acceptance of it. 

* Take Thine own way with me, dear Lord, 
Thou canst not otherwise than bless ; 
I launch me forth upon a sea 

Of boundless love and tenderness. 

1 1 could not choose a larger bliss 

Than to be wholly Thine ; and mine 
A will whose highest joy is this, 
To ceaselessly unclasp in Thine. 

■ 1 will not fear Thee, O my God ! 
The days to come can only bring 
Their perfect sequences of love, 
Thy larger, deeper comforting. 



©ut TRAtlfe ftept for Jesus. 103 

1 Within the shadow of this love, 

Loss doth transmute itself to gain ; 
Faith veils earth's sorrows in its light, 
And straightway lives above her pain. 

4 We are not losers thus; we share 
The perfect gladness of the Son, 
Not conquered — for, behold, we reign ; 
Conquered and Conqueror are one. 

* Thy wonderful grand will, my God ! 

Triumphantly I make it mine; 
And faith shall breathe her glad "Amen " 
To every dear command of Thine. 

* Beneath the splendour of Thy choice, 

Thy perfect choice for me, I rest; 
Outside it now I dare not live, 
Within it I must needs be blest. 

4 Meanwhile my spirit anchors calm 
In grander regions still than this; 
The fair, far-shining latitudes 
Of that yet unexplored bliss. 

4 Then may Thy perfect, glorious will 
Be evermore fulfilled in me, 
And make my life an answ'ring chord 
Of glad, responsive harmony. 

4 Oh ! it is life indeed to live 

Within this kingdom strangely sweet, 
And yet we fear to enter in, 
And linger with unwilling feet. 

* We fear this wondrous rule of Thine, 

Because we have not reached Thy heart ; 
Not venturing our all on Thee, 

We may not know how good Thou art.' 

Jean Sophia Pigott. 



io4 "Kept for tbe Master's TRse. 



CHAPTER X. 



©ur Ibearta kept for 3em&. 

* Keep my heart ; it is Thine own ; 
It is now 9 Thy royal throne? 

( TT is a good thing that the heart be established 
A with grace/ and yet some of us go on as if 
it were not a good thing even to hope for it to 
be so. 

We should be ashamed to say that we had be- 
haved treacherously to a friend ; that we had played 
him false again and again ; that we had said scores 
of times what we did not really mean ; that we had 
professed and promised what, all the while, we had 
no sort of purpose of performing. We should be 
ready to go off by next ship to New Zealand rather 
than calmly own to all this, or rather than ever 
face our friends again after we had owned it. And 
yet we are not ashamed (some of us) to say that we 
are always dealing treacherously with our Lord; 
nay, more, we own it with an inexplicable com- 
placency, as if there were a kind of virtue in say- 
ing how fickle and faithless and desperately wicked 
our hearts are ; and we actually plume ourselves on 
the easy confession, which we think proves our 



©ur Ibearts kept for Seme. 105 

humility, and which does not lower us in the eyes 
of others, nor in our own eyes, half so much as if 
we had to say, 'I have told a story/ or, 'I have 
broken my promise.' Nay, more, we have not the 
slightest hope, and therefore not the smallest in- 
tention of aiming at an utterly different state of 
things. Well for us if we do not go a step farther, 
and call those by hard and false names who do 
seek to have an established heart, and who believe 
that as the Lord meant what He said when He 
promised, ' No good thing will He withhold from 
them that walk uprightly/ so He will not withhold 
this good thing. 

Prayer must be based upon promise, but, thank 
God, His promises are always broader than our 
prayers. No fear of building inverted pyramids 
here, for Jesus Christ is the foundation, and this 
and all the other ' promises of God in Him are 
yea, and in Him amen, unto the glory of God 
by us.' So it shall be unto His glory to fulfil 
this one to us, and to answer our prayer for a 
' kept ' or ' established ' heart. And its fulfilment 
shall work out His glory, not in spite of us, but 
' by us. ' 

We find both the means and the result of the 
keeping in the 1 12th Psalm : ' His heart is fixed/ 
Whose heart? An angel? A saint in glory? 
No ! Simply the heart of the man that feareth the 
Lord, and delighteth greatly in His command- 
ments. Therefore yours and mine, as God would 
have them be ; just the normal idea of a God-fear- 
ing heart, nothing extremely and hopelessly beyond 
attainment. 



io6 -Kept tor tbe /l&astet'e TTlse* 

i Fixed.' How does that tally with the deceit- 
fulness and waywardness and fickleness about which 
we really talk as if we were rather proud of them 
than utterly ashamed of them ? 

Does our heavenly Bridegroom expect nothing 
more of us? Does His mighty, all-constraining 
love intend to do no more for us than to leave us 
in this deplorable state, when He is undoubtedly 
able to heal the desperately wicked heart (compare 
verses 9 and 14 of Jeremiah xvii.), to rule the way- 
ward one with His peace, and to establish the fickle 
one with His grace ? Are w r e not ' without ex- 
cuse ' ? 

' Fixed, trusting in the Lord.' Here is the 
means of the fixing — trust. He works the trust in 
us by sending the Holy Spirit to reveal God in 
Christ to us as absolutely, infinitely worthy of our 
trust. When we 'see Jesus' by Spirit- wrought 
faith, we cannot but trust Him; we distrust our 
hearts more truly than ever before, but we trust our 
Lord entirely, because we trust Him only. For, 
entrusting our trust to Him, we know that He is 
able to keep that which we commit (*. e. entrust) 
to Him. It is His own way of winning and fixing 
our hearts for Himself. Is it not a beautiful one ? 
Thus ' his heart is established.' But we have not 
quite faith enough to believe that. So what is the 
very first doubting, and therefore sad thought that 
crops up ? ' Yes, but I am afraid it will not remain 
fixed/ 

That is your thought. Now see what is God's 
thought about the case. * His heart is established, 
he shall not be afraid.' 



©ur Ibearts ftept for Jesus. 107 

Is not that enough ? What is, if such plain and 
yet divine words are not ? Well, the Gracious 
One bears with us, and gives line upon line to His 
poor little children. And so He says, ' The peace 
of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep 
your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus.' And 
again, * Thy thoughts shall be established.' And 
again, i Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose 
mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in 
Thee.' 

And to prove to us that these promises can be 
realized in present experience, He sends down to 
us through nearly 3000 years the words of the man 
who prayed, ' Create in me a clean heart, O God,' 
and lets us hear twice over the new song put by the 
same Holy Spirit into his mouth : ' My heart is 
fixed, O God, my heart is fixed' (Ps. lvii. 7, 
cviii. 1). 

The heart that is established in Christ is also es- 
tablished for Christ. It becomes His royal throne, 
no longer occupied by His foe, no longer tottering 
and unstable. And then we see the beauty and 
preciousness of the promise, ' He shall be a Priest 
upon His throne.' Not only reigning, but aton- 
ing. Not only ruling, but cleansing. Thus the 
throne is established ' in mercy,' but ' by righteous- 
ness.' 

I think we lose ground sometimes by parleying 
with the tempter. We have no business to parley 
with an usurper. The throne is no longer his 
when we have surrendered it to our Lord Jesus. 
And why should we allow him to argue with us for 
one instant, as if it were still an open question? 



io8 



ftept for tbe /Ilbaster'a TUse* 



Don't listen; simply tell him that Jesus Christ is 
on the long-disputed throne, and no more about it, 
but turn at once to your King and claim the glori- 
ous protection of His sovereignty over you. It is 
a splendid reality, and you will find it so. He will 
not abdicate and leave you kingless and defence- 
less. For verily, s The Lord is our King ; He will 
save us ' (Isa. xxxiii. 22). 



Our hearts 


are naturally — 


God can 


make them — 


Evil, . . 


Heb. iii. 12. 


Clean, . . 


Ps. Ii. 10. 


Desperately 
wicked, . 


Jer. xvii. 9. 


Good, . . 


Luke viii. 15. 


Weak, . . 


Ezek. xvi. 30. 


Fixed, . . 


Ps. cxii. 7. 


Deceitful, . 


Jer. xvii. 9. 


Faithful, . 


Neh. ix. 8. 


Deceived, . 


Isa. xliv. 20. 


Understand- 




Double, 


Ps. xii. 2. 


ing, . . 
Honest, 


1 Kings iii. 9. 
Luke viii. 15. 


Impenitent, 
Rebellious, 


Rom. ii. 5. 
Jer. v. 23. 


Contrite, . 
True, . . 


Ps. Ii. 17. 
Heb. x. 22. 


Hard, . . 


Ezek. iii. 7. 


Soft, . . 


Job xxiii. 16. 


Stony, . . 
Fro ward, . 


Ezek. xi. 19. 
Prov. xvii. 20. 


New, . . 
Sound, . . 


Ezek. xviii. 31. 
Ps. cxix. 80. 


Despiteful, . 
Stout, . . 


Ezek. xxv. 15. 
Isa. x. 12. 


Glad, . . 
Established, 


Ps. xvi. 9. 
Ps. cxii. 8. 


Haughty, . 
Proud, . . 


Prov. xviii. 12. 
Prov. xxi. 4. 


Tender, . 
Pure, . . 


Ephes. iv. 32. 
Matt. v. 8. 


Perverse, . 


Prov. xii. 8. 


Perfect, 


1 Chron. xxix. 9. 


Foolish, 


Rom. i. 21. 


Wise, . . 


Prov. xi. 29. 



©ur Xove fcept for Jesus. 109 



CHAPTER XI. 



©ur Xove Kept for 3eaus. 

' A>*?/ my love ; my Lord, I pour 
At Thy feet its treasure-store? 

NOT as a mere echo from the morning-gilded 
shore of Tiberias, but as an ever new, ever 
sounding note of divinest power, come the famil- 
iar words to each of us, ' Lovest thou Me ? ' He 
says it who has loved us with an everlasting love. 
He says it who has died for us. He says it who 
has washed us from our sins in His own blood. He 
says it who has waited for our love, waited pa- 
tiently all through our coldness. 

And if by His grace we have said, ' Take my 
love/ which of us has not felt that part of His very 
answer has been to make us see how little there was 
to take, and how little of that little has been kept 
for Him ? And yet we do love Him ! He knows 
that ! The very mourning and longing to love 
Him more proves it. But we want more than that, 
and so does our Lord. 

He has created us to love. We have a sealed 
treasure of love, which either remains sealed, and 
then gradually dries up and wastes away, or is un- 



no ikept for tbe /toaster's xase* 

sealed and poured out, and yet is the fuller and not 
the emptier for the outpouring. The more love we 
give, the more we have to give. So far it is only 
natural. But when the Holy Spirit reveals the love 
of Christ, and sheds abroad the love of God in our 
hearts, this natural love is penetrated with a new 
principle as it discovers a new Object. Everything 
that it beholds in that Object gives it new depth 
and new colours. As it sees the holiness, the 
beauty, and the glory, it takes the deep hues of 
conscious sinfulness, unworthiness, and nothing- 
ness. As it sees even a glimpse of the love that 
passeth knowledge, it takes the glow of wonder and 
gratitude. And when it sees that love drawing 
close to its deepest need with blood-purchased par- 
don, it is intensified and stirred, and there is no 
more time for weighing and measuring ; we must 
pour it out, all there is of it, with our tears, at the 
feet that were pierced for love of us. 

And what then ? Has the flow grown gradually 
slower and shallower? Has our Lord reason to 
say, s My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, 
and as a stream of brooks they pass away ' ? It is 
humiliating to have found that we could not keep 
on loving Him, as we loved in that remembered 
hour when * Thy time was the time of love/ We 
have proved that we were not able. Let this be 
only the stepping-stone to proving that He is able ! 

There will have been a cause, as we shall see if 
we seek it honestly. It was not that we really 
poured out all our treasure, and so it naturally 
came to an end. We let it be secretly diverted into 
other channels. We began keeping back a little 



©ur %ove ftept tot Jeeua* ii'i 

part of the price for something else. We looked 
away from, instead of looking away unto Jesus. 
We did not entrust Him with our love, and ask 
Him to keep it for Himself. 

And what has He to say to us? Ah, He up- 
braideth not. Listen ! ' Thus saith the Lord, I 
remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love 
of thine espousals. ' Can any words be more ten- 
der, more touching, to you, to me? Forgetting 
all the sin, all the backsliding, all the coldness, 
casting all that into the unreturning depths of the 
sea, He says He remembers that hour when we first 
said, ' Take my love. ' He remembers it now, at 
this minute. He has written it for ever on His in- 
finite memory, where the past is as the present. 

His own love is unchangeable, so it could never 
be His wish or will that we should thus drift away 
from Him. Oh, ' Come and let us return unto the 
Lord ! ' But is there any hope that, thus returning, 
our flickering love may be kept from again failing ?' 
Hear what He says : 'And I will betroth thee unto 
Me for ever ' And again : ' Thou shalt abide J vr 
Me many days; so will I also be for thee.' Shall 
we trust His word or not ? Is it worthy of our ac- 
ceptation or not ? Oh, rest on this word of the 
King, and let Him from this day have the keeping, 
of your love, and He will keep it ! 

The love of Christ is not an absorbing, but a ra- 
diating love. The more we love Him, the more 
we shall most certainly love others. Some have not 
much natural power of loving, but the love of Christ 
will strengthen it. Some have had the springs of 



H2 ikept for tbe /toaster's TUse* 

love dried up by some terrible earthquake. They 
will find l fresh springs ' in Jesus, and the gentle 
flow will be purer and deeper than the old torrent 
could ever be. Some have been satisfied that it 
should rush in a narrow channel, but He will cause 
it to overflow into many another, and widen its 
course of blessing. Some have spent it all on their 
God-given dear ones. Now He is come whose 
right it is ; and yet in the fullest resumption of 
that right, He is so gracious that He puts back an 
even larger measure of the old love into our hand, 
sanctified with His own love, and energized with 
His blessing, and strengthened with His new com- 
mandment, ' That ye love one another, as I have 
loved you.' 

In that always very interesting part, called a 
* Corner for Difficulties,' of that always very inter- 
esting magazine, Woman' s Work, the question has 
been discussed, ' When does love become idolatry? 
Is it the experience of Christians that the coming 
in of a new object of affection interferes with entire 
consecration to God ? ' I should like to quote the 
many excellent answers in full, but must only refer 
my readers to the number for March 1879. One 
replies : ' It seems to me that He who is love 
would not give us an object for our love unless He 
saw that our hearts needed expansion ; and if the 
love is consecrated, and the friendship takes its 
stand in Christ, there is no need for the fear that it 
will become idolatry. Let the love on both sides 
be given to God to keep, and however much it may 
grow, the source from which it springs must yet be 
greater. ' Perhaps I may be pardoned for giving. 



Ovlx %ove ftept for Jesus* 113 

at the same writer's suggestion, a quotation from 
Under the Surface on this subject. Eleanor says to 
Beatrice: — 

' I tremble when I think 
How much I love him ; but I turn away 
From thinking of it, just to love him more; — 
Indeed, I fear, too much.' 

1 Dear Eleanor, 
Do you love him as much as Christ loves us ? 
Let your lips answer me.' 

' Why ask me, dear ? 
Our hearts are finite, Christ is infinite.' 

1 Then, till you reach the standard of that love, 
Let neither fears nor well-meant warning voice 
Distress you with " too much." For He hath said 
How much — and who shall dare to change His measure? 
" That ye should love AS I have loved you." 
O sweet command, that goes so far beyond 
The mightiest impulse of the tenderest heart ! 
A bare permission had been much; but He 
Who knows our yearnings and our fearfulness, 
Chose graciously to bid us do the thing 
That makes our earthly happiness, 
A limit that we need not fear to pass, 
Because we cannot. Oh, the breadth and length, 
And depth and height of love that passeth knowledge ! 
Yet Jesus said, "As I have loved you." ' 

* O Beatrice, I long to feel the sunshine 
That this should bring ; but there are other words 
Which fall in chil! eclipse. 'Tis written, " Keep 
Yourselves from idols." How shall I obey ? ' 

1 Oh, not by loving less, but loving more. 
It is not that we love our precious ones 
Too much, but God too little. As the lamp 
A miner bears upon his shadowed brow 
Is only dazzling in the grimy dark, 
And has no glare against the summer sky, 



ii4 Ikept tor tbe Master's Use. 

So, set the tiny torch of our best love 

In the great sunshine of the love of God, 

And, though full fed and fanned, it casts no shade 

And dazzles not, o'erflowed with mightier light.' 

There is no love so deep and wide as that which 
is kept for Jesus. It flows both fuller and farther 
when it flows only through Him. Then, too, it 
will be a power for Him. It will always be uncon- 
sciously working for Him. In drawing others to 
ourselves by it, we shall be necessarily drawing them 
nearer to the fountain of our love, never drawing 
them away from it. It is the great magnet of His love 
which alone can draw any heart to Him; but when 
our own are thoroughly yielded to its mighty in- 
fluence, they will be so magnetized that He will 
condescend to use them in this way. 

Is it not wonderful to think that the Lord Jesus 
will not only accept and keep, but actually use 
our love? 

' Of Thine own have we given Thee,' for ' we love 
Him because He first loved us. ' 

Set apart to love Him, 

And His love to know ; 
Not to waste affection 
On a passing show ; 
Called to give Him life and heart, 

Called to pour the hidden treasure, 
That none other claims to measure, 
Into His beloved hand ! thrice blessed * set apart ' ! 



©uc Selves ftept for Sesus. 115 



CHAPTER XII. 



©ur Selves kept for Jesus. 

' .Ar^/ my self, thai I may be 
Ever, only, all for Thee? 

<T^OR Thee! ' That is the beginning and the 
r end of the whole matter of consecration. 

There was a prelude to its ' endless song/ — a pre- 
lude whose theme is woven into every following 
harmony in the new anthem of consecrated life : 
' The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself 
for me.' Out of the realized i for me,' grows the 
practical ' for Thee !' If the former is a living root, 
the latter will be its living fruit. 

' For Thee!' This makes the difference between 
forced or formal, and therefore unreasonable ser- 
vice, and the ' reasonable service ' which is the be- 
ginning of the perfect service where they see His 
face. This makes the difference between slave work 
and free work. For Thee, my Redeemer ; for Thee 
who hast spoken to my heart; for Thee, who hast 
done for me — what? Let us each pause, and fill 
up that blank with the great things the Lord hath 
done for us. For Thee, who art to me — what? 



u6 ^ept for tbe /toaster's Use* 

Fill that up too, before Him ! For Thee, my 
Saviour Jesus, my Lord and my God ! 

And what is to be for Him ? My self. We talk 
sometimes as if, whatever else could be subdued 
unto Him, self could never be. Did St. Paul for- 
get to mention this important exception to the 'all 
things* in Phil. iii. 21? David said: 'Bless the 
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless 
His Holy Name.' Did he, too, unaccountably for- 
get to mention that he only meant all that was 
within him, except self? If not, then self must be 
among the ' all things ' which the Lord Jesus Christ 
is able to subdue unto Himself, and which are to 
'bless His Holy Name.' It is Self which, once His 
most treacherous foe, is now, by full and glad sur- 
render, His own soldier — coming over from the 
rebel camp into the royal army. It is not some 
one else, some temporarily possessing spirit, which 
says within us, ' Lord, Thou knowest that I love 
Thee/ but our true and very self, only changed 
and renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost. 
And when we do that we would not, we know that 
'it is no more /that do it, but sin that dwelleth 
in me.' Our true self is the new self, taken and 
won by the love of God, and kept by the power 
of God. 

Yes, 'kept / ' There is the promise on which we 
ground our prayer; or, rather, one of the promises. 
For, search and look for your own strengthening 
and comfort, and you will find it repeated in every 
part of the Bible, from ' I am with thee, and will 
keep thee,' in Genesis, to 'I also will keep thee 
from the hour of temptation,' in Revelation. 



©ur Selves ftept for Seem. n? 

And kept for Him ! Why should it be thought a 
thing incredible with you, when it is only the ful- 
filling of His own eternal purpose in creating us? 
' This people have I formed for Myself Not ulti- 
mately only, but presently and continually; for He 
says, e Thou shalt abide for Me ; ' and, 'He that 
remaineth, even he shall be for our God.' Are you 
one of His people by faith in Jesus Christ? Then 
see what you are to Him. You, personally and in- 
dividually, are part of the Lord's portion (Deut. 
xxxii. 9) and of His inheritance (1 Kings viii. 53,- 
and Eph. i. 18). His portion and inheritance 
would not be complete without you ; you are His 
peculiar treasure (Ex. xix. 5) ; 'a special people * 
(how warm, and loving, and natural that expression 
is !) ' unto Himself (Deut. vii. 6). Would you 
call it ' keeping/ if you had a i special ' treasure, a 
darling little child, for instance, and let it run wild 
into all sorts of dangers all day long, sometimes at 
your side, and sometimes out in the street, with 
only the intention of fetching it safe home at night? 
If ye then, being evil, would know better, and do 
better, than that, how much more shall our Lord's 
keeping be true, and tender, and continual, and 
effectual, when He declares us to be His peculiar 
treasure, purchased (See 1 Pet. ii. 9, margin) for 
Himself at such unknown cost ! 

He will keep what thus He sought, 
Safely guard the dearly bought ; 
Cherish that which He did choose, 
Always love and never lose. 

I know what some of us are thinking. ' Yes ; I 



n8 -Rept for tbe /toaster's 'dee* 

see it all plainly enough in theory, but in practice I 
find I am not kept. Self goes over to the other 
camp again and again. It is not all for Jesus, 
though I have asked and wished for it to be so.' 
Dear friends, the 'all ' must be sealed with ' only.' 
Are you willing to be * only ' for Jesus ? You have 
not given ' all ' to Jesus while you are not quite 
ready to be ' only ' for Him. And it is no use to 
talk about ' ever ' while we have not settled the 
' only ' and the ' all. ' You cannot be ' for Him/ in 
the full and blessed sense, while you are partly ■ for ' 
anything or any one else. For ' the Lord hath set 
apart him that is godly for Himself/ You see, the 
* for Himself hinges upon the ' set apart.' There 
is no consecration without separation. If you are 
mourning over want of realized consecration, will 
you look humbly and sincerely into this point ? 
'A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse/ saith 
the Heavenly Bridegroom. 

Set apart for Jesus ! 

Is not this enough, 
Though the desert prospect 
Open wild and rough ? 
Set apart for His delight, 

Chosen for His holy pleasure, 
Sealed to be His special treasure ! 
Could we choose a nobler joy ? — and would we, if we 
might ? * 

But yielding, by His grace, to this blessed setting 
apart for Himself, ' The Lord shall establish thee an 
holy people unto Himself, as He hath sworn unto 
thee.' Can there be a stronger promise? Just 

* Loyal Responses ', p. 1 1. 



©ur Selves kept for Seem. 119 

obey and trust His word now, and yield yourselves 
now unto God, ' that He may establish thee to-day 
for a people unto Himself/ Commit the keeping 
of your souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faith- 
ful Creator, being persuaded that He is able to 
keep that which you commit to Him. 

Now, Lord, I give myself to Thee, 

I would be wholly Thine, 
As Thou hast given Thyself to me, 

And Thou art wholly mine ; 
O take me, seal me for Thine own, 
Thine altogether, Thine alone. 

Here comes in once more that immeasurably im- 
portant subject of our influence. For it is not what 
we say or do, so much as what we are, that influ- 
ences others. We have heard this, and very likely 
repeated it again and again, but have we seen it to 
be inevitably linked with the great question of this 
chapter? I do not know anything which, thought- 
fully considered, makes us realize more vividly the 
need and the importance of our whole selves being 
kept for Jesus. i\ny part not wholly committed, 
and not wholly kept, must hinder and neutralize 
the real influence for Him of all the rest. If we 
ourselves are kept all for Jesus, then our influence 
will be all kept for Him too. If not, then, how- 
ever much we may wish and talk and try, we can- 
not throw our full weight into the right scale. And 
just in so far as it is not in the one scale, it must be 
in the other ; weighing against the little which we 
have tried to put in the right one, and making the 
short weight still shorter. 



120 ikept for tbe /toaster's 1Hse* 

So large a proportion of it is entirely involun- 
tary, while yet the responsibility of it is so enor- 
mous, that our helplessness comes out in exception- 
ally strong relief, while our past debt in this matter 
is simply incalculable. Are we feeling this a little? 
getting just a glimpse, down the misty defiles of 
memory, of the neutral influence, the wasted influ- 
ence, the mistaken influence, the actually wrong 
influence which has marked the ineffaceable al- 
though untraceable course ? And all the while we 
owed Him all that influence ! It ought to have 
been all for Him ! We have nothing to say. But 
what has our Lord to say ? ' I forgave thee all that 
debt ! ' 

Then, after that forgiveness which must come 
first, there comes a thought of great comfort in our 
freshly felt helplessness, rising out of the very thing 
that makes us realize this helplessness. Just because 
our influence is to such a great extent involuntary 
and unconscious, we may rest assured that if we 
ourselves are truly kept for Jesus, this will be, as a 
quite natural result, kept for Him also. It cannot 
be otherwise, for as is the fountain, so will be the 
flow ; as the spring, so the action ; as the impulse, 
so the communicated motion. Thus there may 
be, and in simple trust there will be, a quiet rest 
about it, a relief from all sense of strain and effort, 
a fulfilling of the words, ' For he that is entered 
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own 
works, as God did from His/ It will not be a 
matter of trying to have good influence, but just of 
having it, as naturally and constantly as the mag- 
netized bar. 






Q\xt Selves kept for Jesus* 121 

Another encouraging thought should follow. Of 
ourselves we may have but little weight, no particu- 
lar talents or position or anything else to put into 
the scale ; but let us remember that again and again 
God has shown that the influence of a very average 
life, when once really consecrated to Him, may out- 
weigh that of almost any number of merely profess- 
ing Christians. Such lives are like Gideon's three 
hundred, carrying not even the ordinary weapons 
of war, but only trumpets and lamps and empty 
pitchers, by whom the Lord wrought great deliver- 
ance, while He did not use the others at all. For 
He hath chosen the weak things of the world to 
confound the things which are mighty. 

Should not all this be additional motive for desiring 
that our whole selves should be taken and kept ? 

I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be 
for ever. Therefore we may rejoicingly say ' ever ' 
as well as s only ' and ' all for Thee ! ' For the Lord 
is our Keeper, and He is the Almighty and the 
Everlasting God, with whom is no variableness, 
neither shadow of turning. He will never change 
His mind about keeping us, and no man is able to 
pluck us out of His hand. Neither will Christ let 
us pluck ourselves out of His hand, for He says, 
'Thou shalt abide for Me many days/ And He 
that keepeth us will not slumber. Once having 
undertaken His vineyard, He will keep it night and 
day, till all the days and nights are over, and we 
know the full meaning of the salvation ready to be 
revealed in the last time, unto which we are kept 
by His power. 



122 -Kept for tbe /toaster's TUse. 

And then, for ever for Him ! passing from the 
gracious keeping by faith for this little while, to 
the glorious keeping in His presence for all eter- 
nity ! For ever fulfilling the object for which He 
formed us and chose us, we showing forth His 
praise, and He showing the exceeding riches of 
His grace in His kindness towards us in the ages 
to come ! He for us, and we for Him for ever / 
Oh, how little we can grasp this ! Yet this is the 
fruition of being ' kept for Jesus ! ' 

Set apart for ever 

For Himself alone ! 
Now we see our calling 
Gloriously shown. 
Owning, with no secret dread, 
This our holy separation, 
Now the crown of consecration * 
Of the Lord our God shall rest upon our willing head. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Gbrtet for lite. 

' So will I also be for Thee? — Hos. iii. 3. 

THE typical promise, ' Thou shalt abide for. Me 
many days/ is indeed a marvel of love. For 
it is given to the most undeserving, described under 
the strongest possible figure of utter worthlessness 

* Num. vi. 7. 



Cbriat for me* 123 

and treacherousness, — the woman beloved, yet an 
adulteress. 

The depth of the abyss shows the length of 
the line that has fathomed it, yet only the length of 
the line reveals the real depth of the abyss. The 
sin shows the love, and the love reveals the sin. 
The Bible has few words more touching, though sel- 
dom quoted, than those just preceding this wonderful 
promise : ' The love of the Lord toward the chil- 
dren of Israel, who look to other gods, and love 
flagons of wine/ Put that into the personal appli- 
cation which no doubt underlies it, and say, ' The 
love of the Lord toward me, who have looked away 
from Him, with wandering, faithless eyes, to other 
helps and hopes, and have loved earthly joys and 
sought earthly gratifications, — the love of the Lord 
toward even me !' And then hear Him saying in 
the next verse, ' So I bought her to Me ; ' stooping 
to do that in His unspeakable condescension of 
love, not with the typical silver and barley, but 
with the precious blood of Christ. Then, having 
thus loved us, and rescued us, and bought us with 
a price indeed, He says, still under the same figure, 
4 Thou shalt abide for Me many days.' 

This is both a command and a pledge. But the 
very pledge implies our past unfaithfulness, and 
the proved need of even our own part being under- 
taken by the ever patient Lord. He Himself 
has to guarantee our faithfulness, because there 
is no other hope of our continuing faithful. Well 
may such*love win our full and glad surrender, 
and such a promise win our happy and confident 
trust ! 



124 IKept tot tbe Master's Wee. 

But He says more. He says, l So will I also be 
for thee !' And this seems an even greater marvel 
of love, as we observe how He meets every detail 
of our consecration with this wonderful word.* 

i. His Life ' for thee !' < The Good Shepherd 
giveth His life for the sheep.* Oh, wonderful gift ! 
not promised, but given; not to friends, but to ene- 
mies. Given without condition, without reserve, 
without return. Himself unknown and unloved, 
His gift unsought and unasked, He gave His life 
for thee ; a more than royal bounty — the greatest 
gift that Deity could devise. Oh, grandeur of love ! 
' I lay down My life for the sheep !' And we for 
whom He gave it have held back, and hesitated to 
give our lives, not even for Him (He has not asked 
us to do that), but to Him ! But that is past, and 
He has tenderly pardoned the unloving, ungrateful 
reserve, and has graciously accepted the poor little 
fleeting breath and speck of dust which was all we 
had to offer. And now His precious death and His 
glorious life are all 'for thee.' 

2. His Eternity l for thee.' All we can ask Him 
to take are days and moments — the little span given 
us as it is given, and of this only the present in deed 
and the future in will. As for the past, in so far as 
we did not give it to Him, it is too late ; we can 
never give it now ! But His past was given to us, 

*The remainder of this chapter is printed in a little penny- 
book, entitled, / also for Thee, by F. R. H., published by 
Caswell, Birmingham, and by Nisbet & Co. 



Gbrtet tor TZLe. 125 

though ours was not given to Him. Oh, what a 
tremendous debt does this show us ! 

Away back in the dim depths of past eternity, 
'or ever the earth and the world were made/ His 
divine existence in the bosom of His Father was 
all ' for thee/ purposing and planning ' for thee/ 
receiving and holding the promise of eternal life 
* for thee/ 

Then the thirty-three years among sinners on this 
sinful earth : do we think enough of the slowly- 
wearing days and nights, the heavy-footed hours, 
the never-hastening minutes, that went to make up 
those thirty-three years of trial and humiliation ? 
We all know how slowly time passes when suffering 
and sorrow are near, and there is no reason to sup- 
pose that our Master was exempted from this part 
of our infirmities. 

Then His present is e for thee/ Even now He 
4 liveth to make intercession ; ' even now He 
4 thinketh upon me / even now He ' knoweth/ He 
'careth/ He 'loveth/ 

Then, only to think that His whole eternity will 
be ' for thee !' Millions of ages of unfoldings of all 
His love, and of ever new declarings of His Father's 
name to His brethren. Think of it ! and can we 
ever hesitate to give all our poor little hours to His 
service ? 

3. His Hands ' for thee/ Literal hands; liter- 
ally pierced, when the whole weight of His quiver- 
ing frame hung from their torn muscles and bared 
nerves ; literally uplifted in parting blessing. Con- 
secrated, priestly hands ; ' filled ' hands (Ex. xxviii. 



126 iftept tor tbe /toaster's THae* 

41, xxix. 9, etc., margin) — filled once with His 
great offering, and now with gifts and blessings ' for 
thee.' Tender hands, touching and healing, lifting 
and leading with gentlest care. Strong hands, up- 
holding and defending. Open hands, filling with 
good and satisfying desire (Ps. civ. 28, and cxlv.16). 
Faithful hands, restraining and sustaining. i His 
left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth 
embrace me.' 

4. His Feet ' for thee.' They were weary very 
often, they were wounded and bleeding once. They 
made clear footprints as He went about doing good, 
and as He went up to Jerusalem to suffer ; and 
these 'blessed steps of His most holy life/ both as 
substitution and example, were ' for thee,' Our 
place of waiting and learning, of resting and loving, 
is at His feet. And still those € blessed feet ' are 
and shall be ' for thee/ until He comes again to 
receive us unto Himself, until and when the word 
is fulfilled, 'They shall walk with Me in white.' 

5. His Voice ' for thee.' The ' Voice of my be- 
loved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, 
my love ; ' the Voice that His sheep ' hear ' and 
'know/ and that calls out the fervent response, 
' Master, say on ! ' This is not all. It was the lit- 
eral voice of the Lord Jesus which uttered that one 
echoless cry of desolation on the Cross ' for thee/ 
and it will be His own literal voice which will say, 
' Come, ye blessed ! ' to thee. And that same ten- 
der and ' glorious Voice ' has literally sung and will 
sing 'for thee.' I think He consecrated song for 



Cbrtet for Tlte. 127 

us, and made it a sweet and sacred thing for ever, 
when He Himself 'sang an hymn/ the very last 
thing before He went forth to consecrate suffering 
for us. That was not His last song. ' The Lord 
thy God . . . will joy over thee with singing/ 
And the time is coming when He will not only sing 
i for thee* or 'over thee/ but with thee. He says 
He will ! i In the midst of the church will I sing 
praise unto Thee. ' Now what a magnificent glimpse 
of joy this is ! ' Jesus Himself leading the praises 
of His brethren/* and we ourselves singing not 
merely in such a chorus, but with such a leader ! 
If ' singing for Jesus ' is such delight here, what 
will this ' singing with Jesus ' be ? Surely song may 
well be a holy thing to us henceforth. 

6. His Lips ' for thee.' Perhaps there is no part 
of our consecration which it is so difficult practically 
to realize, and in which it is, therefore, so needful 
to recollect — ' I also for thee. ' It is often helpful 
to read straight through one or more of the Gospels 
with a special thought on our mind, and see how 
much bears upon it. When we read one through 
with this thought — ' His Zips for me ! ' — wondering, 
verse by verse, at the grace which was poured into 
them, and the gracious words which fell from them, 
wondering more and more at the cumulative force 
and infinite wealth of tenderness and power and 
wisdom and love flowing from them, we cannot but 
desire that our lips and all the fruit of them should 

* See A. Newton on the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. ii. 
ver. 12. 



128 utept tor tbe /l&aster's tllse* 

be wholly for Him. * For thee ' they were opened 
in blessing ; s for thee \ they were closed when He 
was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And whether 
teaching, warning, counsel, comfort, or encour- 
agement, commandments in whose keeping there is 
a great reward, or promises which exceed all we ask 
or think — all the precious fruit of His lips is ' for 
thee/ really and truly meant ' for thee.' 

7. His Wealth ' for thee/ ' Though He was rich, 
yet for our sakes He became poor, that ye through 
His poverty might be made rich/ Yes, 'through 
His poverty ' the unsearchable riches of Christ are 
'for thee/ Seven -fold riches are mentioned; and 
these are no unminted treasure or sealed reserve, 
but all ready coined for our use, and stamped with 
His own image and superscription, and poured 
freely into the hand of faith. The mere list is won- 
derful. 'Riches of goodness,' 'riches of forbear- 
ance and long-suffering, ' 'riches both of wisdom 
and knowledge/ 'riches of mercy/ 'exceeding 
riches of grace/ and 'riches of glory/ And His 
own Word says, 'All are yours ! ' • Glance on in 
faith, and think of eternity flowing on and on be- 
yond the mightiest sweep of imagination, and real- 
ize that all ' His riches in glory ' and ' the riches of 
His glory ' are and shall be ' for thee ! ' In view of 
this, shall we care to reserve anything that rust doth 
corrupt for ourselves ? 

8. His ' treasures of 'wisdom and knowledge' ' for 
thee/ First, used for our behalf and benefit. Why 
did He expend such immeasurable might of mind 



Gbrfst for TUs, 129 

upon a world which is to be burnt up, but that He 
would fit it perfectly to be, not the home, but the 
school of His children ? The infinity of His skill 
is such that the most powerful intellects find a life- 
time too short to penetrate a little way into a few 
secrets of some one small department of His work- 
ing. If we turn to Providence, it is quite enough 
to take only one's own life, and look at it micro- 
scopically and telescopically, and marvel at the 
treasures of wisdom lavished upon its details, order- 
ing and shaping and fitting the tiny confused bits 
into the true mosaic which He means it to be. Many 
a little thing in our lives reveals the same Mind 
which, according to a well-known and very beauti- 
ful illustration, adjusted a perfect proportion in the 
delicate hinges of the snowdrop and the droop of its 
bell, with the mass of the globe and the force of 
gravitation. How kind we think it if a very tal- 
ented friend spends a little of his thought and 
power of mind in teaching us or planning for us ! 
Have we been grateful for the infinite thought and 
wisdom which our Lord has expended upon us and 
our creation, preservation, and redemption ? 

Secondly, to be shared with us. He says, * All 
that I have is thine.' He holds nothing back, re- 
serves nothing from His dear children, and what we 
cannot receive now He is keeping for us. He 
gives us ' hidden riches of secret places ' now, but 
by and by He will give us more, and the glorified 
intellect will be filled continually out of His treas- 
ures of wisdom and knowledge. But the sanctified 
intellect will be, must be, used for Him, and only 
for Him, now ! 



130 l&ept tor tbc /l&aster/s TUse* 

9. JT^ #7// 'for thee.' Think first of the 
infinite might of that will ; the first great law and the 
first great force of the universe, from which alone 
every other law and every other force has sprung, 
and to which all are subordinate. ' He worketh all 
things after the counsel of His own will. 1 ' He 
doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of the earth.' Then 
think of the infinite mysteries of that will. For 
ages and generations the hosts of heaven have 
wonderingly watched its vouchsafed unveilings and 
its sublime developments, and still they are waiting, 
watching, and wondering. 

Creation and Providence are but the whisper of 
its power, but Redemption is its music, and praise 
is the echo which shall yet fill His temple. The 
whisper and the music, yes, and ' the thunder of 
His power/ are all 'for thee.' For what is 'the 
good pleasure of His will ' ? (Eph. i. 5.) Oh, what 
a grand list of blessings purposed, provided, pur- 
chased, and possessed, all flowing to us out of it ! 
And nothing but blessings, nothing but privileges, 
which we never should have imagined, and which, 
even when revealed, we are ' slow of heart to be- 
lieve ; ' nothing but what should even now fill us 
1 with joy unspeakable and full of glory ! ' 

Think of this will as always and altogether on our 
side — always working for us, and in us, and with 
us, if we will only let it ; think of it as always and 
only synonymous with infinitely wise and almighty 
love ; think of it as undertaking all for us, from the 
great work of our eternal salvation down to the 
momentary details of guidance and supply, and do 






Gbrtet tor TSLe. 131 

we not feel utter shame and self-abhorrence at ever 
having hesitated for an instant to give up our tiny, 
feeble, blind will, to be — not crushed, not even 
bent, but blent with His glorious and perfect 
Will ? 

10. His Heart < for thee. ' ' Behold .... He 
is mighty ... in heart,' said Job (Job xxxvi. 
5, margin). And this mighty and tender heart is 
' for thee ! ' If He had only stretched forth His 
hand to save us from bare destruction, and said, 
' My hand for thee ! ' how could we have praised 
Him enough? But what shall we say of the un- 
speakably marvellous condescension which says, 
1 Thou hast ravished (margin, taken away) my 
heart, my sister, my spouse ! ' The very foun- 
tain of His divine life, and light, and love, the very 
centre of His being, is given to His beloved ones, 
who are not only 'set as a seal upon His heart/ but 
taken into His heart, so that our life is hid there, 
and we dwell there in the very centre of all safety, 
and power, and love, and glory. What will be the 
revelation of ' that day,' when the Lord Jesus prom- 
ises, ' Ye shall know that I am in My Father, and 
ye in Me ' ? For He implies that we do not yet 
know it, and that our present knowledge of this 
dwelling in Him is not knowledge at all compared 
with what He is going to show us about it. 

Now shall we, can we, reserve any corner of our 
hearts from Him ? 

1 1 . His Love ' for thee. ' Not a passive, possi- 
ble love, but outflowing, yes, outpouring of the real, 



13 2 Iftept for tbe /l&aster's TSLee. 

glowing, personal love of His mighty and tender 
heart. Love not as an attribute, a quality, a latent 
force, but an acting, moving, reaching, touching, 
and grasping power. Love, not a cold, beautiful, 
far-off star, but a sunshine that comes and enfolds 
us, making us warm and glad, and strong and bright 
and fruitful. 

His love ! What manner of love is it ? What 
should be quoted to prove or describe it ? First 
the whole Bible with its mysteries and marvels of 
redemption, then the whole book of Providence 
and the whole volume of creation. Then add to 
these the unknown records of eternity past and the 
unknown glories of eternity to come, and then let 
the immeasurable quotation be sung by ' angels and 
archangels, and all the company of heaven/ with all 
the harps of God, and still that love will be untold, 
still it will be * the love of Christ that passeth 
knowledge. ' 

But it is ' for thee ! ' 

12. Himself i for thee/ ' Christ also hath loved 
us, and given Himself for us. ' ' The Son of God 
. . . loved me, and gave Himself for me.' Yes, 
Himself! What is the Bride's true and central 
treasure ? What calls forth the deepest, brightest, 
sweetest thrill of love and praise ? Not the Bride- 
groom's priceless gifts, not the robe of His re- 
splendent righteousness, not the dowry of unsearch- 
able riches, not the magnificence of the palace 
home to which He is bringing her, not the glory 
which she shall share with Him, but Himself ! 
Jesus Christ, * who His own self bare our sins in 



Gbrist for We. 133 

His own body on the tree ; ' ' this same Jesus, ' 
' whom having not seen, ye love ; ' the Son of God, 
and the Man of Sorrows ; my Saviour, my Friend, 
my Master, my King, my Priest, my Lord and my 
God— He says, '/also for thee ! ' What an '/'/ 
What power and sweetness we feel in it, so differ- 
ent from any human '/,' for all His Godhead and 
all His manhood are concentrated in it, and all 
' for thee ! ' 

And not only 'all,' but 'ever' for thee. His 
unchangeableness is the seal upon every attribute ; 
He will be ' this same Jesus ' for ever. How can 
mortal mind estimate this enormous promise ? How 
can mortal heart conceive what is enfolded in these 
words, ' I also for thee '? 

One glimpse of its fulness and glory, and we feel 
that henceforth it must be, shall be, and by His 
grace will be our true-hearted, whole-hearted cry — 



Take myself ", and I will be 
Ever y only, ALL for Thee ! 



THE END. 



SELECTIONS FROM 
MISS HAVERGAL'S LATEST POEMS. 



Hn IFnterlube, 

rHAT^axt is finished ! I lay down my pen, 
And wonder if the thoughts will flow as fast 
Through the more difficult defile. For the last 
Was easy, and the channel deeper then. 
My Master, I will trust Thee for the rest ; 
Give me just what Thou wilt, and that will be my 
best! 

How can /tell the varied, hidden need 
Of Thy dear children, all unknown to me, 

Who at some future time may come and read 
What I have written ! All are known to Thee. 

As Thou hast helped me, help me to the end ; 

Give me Thy own sweet messages of love to send. 

So now, I pray Thee, keep my hand in Thine ; 

And guide it as Thou wilt. I do not ask 
To understand the ' wherefore* of each line ; 
Mine is the sweeter, easier, happier task, 
Just to look up to Thee for every word, 
Rest in Thy love, and trust, and know that I am 
heard. 

*35 



13 6 Gbe Gbougbts of <3ob. 



Zbe Zhomhts of <3ofc>. 

THEY say there is a hollow, safe and still, 
A point of coolness and repose 
Within the centre of a flame, where life might dwell 
Unharmed andunconsumed, as in a luminous shell, 
Which the bright walls of fire enclose 
In breachless splendour, barrier that no foes 
Could pass at will. 

There is a point of rest 
At the great centre of the cyclone's force, 

A silence at its secret source ; — 
A little child might slumber undistressed, 
Without the ruffle of one fairy curl, 
In that strange central calm amid the mighty whirl. 

So, in the centre of these thoughts of God, 
Cyclones of power, consuming glory-fire, — 

As we fall o'erawed 
Upon our faces, and are lifted higher 
By His great gentleness, and carried nigher 
Than unredeemed angels, till we stand 
Even in the hollow of His hand, 
Nay, more ! we lean upon His breast — 
There, there we find a point of perfect rest 
And glorious safety. There we see 
His thoughts to usward, thoughts of peace 
That stoop in tenderest love ; that still increase 
With increase of our need ; that never change, 



'ffree to Serve/ l 37 

That never fail, or falter, or forget 
O pity infinite ! 
O royal mercy free ! 
gentle climax of the depth and height 
Of God's most precious thoughts, most wonderful, 
most strange ! 
' For I am poor and needy, yet 
The Lord Himself, Jehovah, thinketh upon me ! ' 



'free to Serve/ 

SHE chose His service. For the Lord of Love 
Had chosen her, and paid the awful price 
For her redemption ; and had sought her out, 
And set her free, and clothed her gloriously, 
And put His royal ring upon her hand, 
And crowns of loving-kindness on her head. 
She chose it. Yet it seemed she could not yield 
The fuller measure other lives could bring ; 
For He had given her a precious gift, 
A treasure and a charge to prize and keep, 
A tiny hand, a darling hand, that traced 
On her heart's tablet words of golden love. 
And there was not much room for other lines, 
For time and thought were spent (and rightly 

spent, 
For He had given the charge), and hours and days- 
Were concentrated on the one dear task. 
But He had need of her. Not one new gem 



i3 8 '3free to Serve/ 

But many for His crown ; — not one fair sheaf, 

But many, she should bring. And she should have 

A richer, happier harvest-home at last. 

Because more fruit, more glory and more praise 

Her life should yield to Him. And so He came, 

The Master came Himself, and gently took 

The little hand in His, and gave it room 

Among the angel-harpers. Jesus came 

And laid His own hand on the quivering heart, % 

And made it very still, that He might write 

Invisible words of power — ( Free to serve !'. 

Then through the darkness and the chill He sent 

A heat-ray of His love, developing 

The mystic writing, till it glowed and shone 

And lit up all her life with radiance new, — 

The happy service of a yielded heart. 

With comfort that He never ceased to give 

(Because her need could never cease) she filled 

The empty chalices of other lives, 

And time and thought were thenceforth spent for 

Him 
Who loved her with His everlasting love. 

Let Him write what He will upon our hearts, 
With His unerring pen. They are His own, 
Hewn from the rock by His selecting grace, 
Prepared for His own glory. Let Him write ! 
Be sure He will not cross out one sweet word 
But to inscribe a sweeter, — but to grave 
One that shall shine for ever to His praise, 
And thus fulfil our deepest heart-desire. 
The tearful eye at first may read the line, 
4 Bondage to grief!' But He shall wipe away 



Coming to tbe Iking, 139 

The tears, and clear the vision, till it read 

In ever-brightening letters, ' Free to serve !' 

For whom the Son makes free is free indeed. 

Nor only by reclaiming His good gifts, 

But by withholding, doth the Master write 

These words upon the heart. Not always needs 

Erasure of some blessed line of love 

For this more blest inscription. Where He finds 

A tablet empty for the ' lines left out/ 

That ' might have been ' engraved with human 
love 

And sweetest human cares, yet never bore 

That poetry of life, His own dear hand 

Writes ' Free to serve ! ' And these clear char- 
acters 

Fill with fair colours all the unclaimed space, 

Else grey and colourless. 

Then let it be 

The motto of our lives until we stand 

In the great freedom of Eternity, 

Where we * shall serve Him' while we see His face, 

For ever and for ever ' Free to serve.' 



1 



Coming to tbe Iking. 

2 Chronicles ix. 1-12. 

CAME from very far away to see 
The King of Salem ; for I had been told 
Of glory and of wisdom manifold, 



140 Coming to tbe Iking* 

And condescension infinite and free. 
How could I rest, when I had heard His fame, 
In that dark lonely land of death from whence I 
came ? 

I came (but not like Sheba's queen), alone ! 

No stately train, no costly gifts to bring ; 

No friend at court, save One, that One the King ! 
I had requests to spread before His throne, 
And I had questions none could solve for me, 
Of import deep, and full of awful mystery. 

I came and communed with that mighty King, 
And told Him all my heart ; I cannot say, 
In mortal ear, what communings were they. 
But wouldst thou know, go too, and meekly bring 
All that is in thy heart, and thou shalt hear 
His voice of love and power, His answers sweet 
and clear. 

O happy end of every weary quest ! 

He told me all I needed, graciously; — 
Enough for guidance, and for victory 

O'er doubts and fears, enough for quiet rest; 

And when some veiled response I could not read, 

It was not hid from Him, — this was enough indeed. 

His wisdom and His glories passed before 
My wondering eyes in gradual revelation ; 
The house that He had built, its strong founda- 
tion, 

Its living stones ; and, brightening more and more, 

Fair glimpses of that palace far away, 

Where all His loyal ones shall dwell with Him for aye. 






Coming to tbe Iking. 141 

True the report that reached my far-off land 
Of all His wisdom and transcendent fame ; 
Yet I believed not until I came, — 

Bowed to the dust till raised by royal hand. 

The half was never told by mortal word ; 

My King exceeded all the fame that I had heard ! 

Oh, happy are His servants ! happy they 
Who stand continually before His face, 
Ready to do His will of wisest grace ! 

My King ! is mine such blessedness to-day ? 

For I too hear Thy wisdom, line by line, 

Thy ever brightening words in holy radiance shine. 

Oh, blessed be the Lord thy God, who set 
Our Kin^ upon His throne ! Divine delight 
In the Beloved crowning Thee with might, 
Honour, and majesty supreme ; and yet 
The strange and Godlike secret opening thus, — 
The kingship of His Christ ordained through love 
to us ! 

What shall I render to my glorious King ? 

I have but that which I receive from Thee ; 

And what I give, Thou givest back to me, 
Transmuted by Thy touch ; each worthless thing 
Changed to the preciousness of gem or gold, 
And by Thy blessing multiplied a thousand fold. 

All my desire Thou grantest, whatsoe'er 
I ask ! Was ever mythic tale or dream 
So bold as this reality, — this stream 

Of boundless blessings flowing full and free ? 

Yet more than I have thought or asked of Thee, 

Out of Thy royal bounty still Thou givest me. 



1 42 Gbe Zwo ipatbs* 

Now I will turn to my own land, and tell 
What I myself have seen and heard of Thee. 
And give Thine own sweet message, ' Come and 
see ! ' 
And yet in heart and mind for ever dwell 
With Thee, my King of Peace, in loyal rest, 
Within the fair pavilion of Thy presence blest 



* Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether 
in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.' — 2 Sam. 

XV. 21. 

* Where I am, there shall also my servant be.' — John xii. 26k 



Zhe Zwo ff>atbs. 

Via Dolorosa and Via Giojosa. 

{Suggested by a Picture.} 

MY Master, they have wronged Thee and Thy 
love! 
They only told me I should find the path 
A Via Dolorosa all the way ! 
Even Thy sweetest singers only sang 
Of pressing onward through the same sharp thorns, 
With bleeding footsteps, through the chill dark mist. 
Following and struggling till they reach the light, 
The rest, the sunshine of the far beyond. 



XLbc Zxvo iPatbs* i 1 3 

The anthems of the pilgrimage were set 
In most pathetic minors, exquisite, 
Yet breathing sadness more than any praise ; 
Thy minstrels let the fitful breezes make 
^Eolian moans on their entrusted harps, 
Until the listeners thought that this was all 
The music Thou hadst given. And so the steps 
That halted where the two ways met and crossed. 
The broad and narrow, turned aside in fear, 
Thinking the radiance of their youth must pass 
In sombre shadows if they followed Thee; 
Hearing afar such echoes of one strain, 
The cross, the tribulation, and the toil, 
The conflict, and the clinging in the dark. 
What wonder that the dancing feet are stayed 
From entering the only path of peace ! 
Master, forgive them ! Tune their harps anew, 
And put a new song in their mouths for Thee, 
And make Thy chosen people joyful in Thy love* 



Lord Jesus, Thou hast trodden once for all 
The Via Dolorosa, — and for us ! 
No artist power or minstrel gift may tell 
The cost to Thee of each unfaltering step, 
When love that passeth knowledge led Thee on. 
Faithful and true to God, and true to us. 

And now, beloved Lord, Thou cal est us 
To follow Thee, and we will take Thy word 
About the path which Thou hast marked for us. 
Narrow indeed it is ! Who does not choose 
The narrow track upon the mountain side, 
With ever-widening view, and freshening air, 



i44 ^& e ^ wo IPatbs* 

And honeyed heather, rather than the road, 
With smoothest breadth of dust and loss of view, 
Soiled blossoms not worth gathering, and the noise 
Of wheels instead of silence of the hills, 
Or music of the waterfalls? Oh, why- 
Should they misrepresent Thy words, and make 

* Narrow ' synonymous with ' very hard ' ? 

For Thou, Divinest Wisdom, Thou hast said 
Thy ways are ways of pleasantness, and all 
Thy paths are peace ; and that the path of him 
Who wears Thy perfect robe of righteousness 
Is as the light that shineth more and more 
Unto the perfect day. And Thou hast given 
An olden promise, rarely quoted now, 1 
Because it is too bright for our weak faith : 

* If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend 
Days in prosperity, and they shall spend 

Their years in pleasures. ' All because Thy days 
Were full of sorrow, and Thy lonely years 
Were passed in grief's acquaintance — all for us! 

Master, I set my seal that Thou art true, 

Of Thy good promise not one thing hath failed ! 

And I would send a ringing challenge forth, 

To all who know Thy name, to tell it out, 

Thy faithfulness to every written word, 

Thy loving-kindness crowning all the days, — 

To say and sing with me : * The Lord is good, 

His mercy is for ever, and His truth 

Is written on each page of all my life !' 

Yes ! there is tribulation, but Thy power 

ijob xxvi. ii. 



Qnlv for Sesue* 145 

Can blend it with rejoicing. There are thorns, 
But they have kept us in the narrow way, 
The King's highway of holiness and peace. 
And there is chastening, but the Father's love 
Flows through it ; and would any trusting heart 
Forego the chastening and forego the love ? 
And every step leads on to ' more and more/ 
From strength to strength Thy pilgrims pass and sing 
The praise of Hirn who leads them on and on, 
From glory unto glory, even here ! 



©nl^ for 3esu9* 

ONLY for Jesus ! Lord, keep it for ever 
Sealed on the heart and engraved on the life J 
Pulse of all gladness and nerve of endeavour, 
Secret of rest, and the strength of our strife. 



4 IDessels of flDerq> t prepared unto 
<5ior$/ 

(Rom. ix. 23.) 

VESSELS of mercy, prepared unto glory ! 
This is your calling and this is your joy ! 
This, for the new year unfolding before ye, 
Tells out the terms of your blessed employ. 



146 'Vessels of tibevcy.' 

Vessels, it may be, all empty and broken, 
Marred in the Hand of inscrutable skill ; 

(Love can accept the mysterious token i) 

Marred but to make them more beautiful still. 

Jer. xviii, 4. 

Vessels, it may be, not costly or golden ; 

Vessels, it may be, of quantity small, 
Yet by the Nail in the Sure Place upholden, 

Never to shiver and never to fall. 

ISA. xxii. 23, 24. 

Vessels to honour, made sacred and holy, 
Meet for the use of the Master we love, 

Ready for service, all simple and lowly, 
Ready, one day, for the temple above. 

2 Tim. ii. 21. 

Yes, though the vessels be fragile and earthen, 
God hath commanded His glory to shine ; 

Treasure resplendent henceforth is our burthen, 
Excellent power, not ours but Divine. 

2 CoR.iv. 5, 6. 

Chosen in Christ ere the dawn of Creation, 
Chosen for Him, to be filled with His grace, 

Chosen to carry the streams of salvation 
Into each thirsty and desolate place. 

Acts ix. 15. 

Take all Thy vessels, O glorious Finer, 

Purge all the dross, that each chalice may be 

Pure in Thy pattern, completer, diviner, 
Filled with Thy glory and shining for Thee. 

Prov. xxv. 4. 



XLbc Gurnefc Xessoru 147 



Zfte Gurnet) Xessoru 

< T THOUGHT I knew it ! ' she said, 

1 ' I thought I had learnt it quite ! ' 
But the gentle Teacher shook her head, 

With a grave yet loving light 
In the eyes that fell on the upturned face, 

As she gave the book 
With the mark still set in the self-same place. 

< I thought I knew it ! ' she said ; 

And a heavy tear fell down, 
As she turned away with bending head, 

Yet not for reproof or frown, 
Not for the lesson to learn again, 

Or the play hour lost ; — 
It was something else that gave the pain. 

She could not have put it in words, 

But her Teacher understood, 
As God understands the chirp of the birds 

In the depth of an autumn wood. 
And a quiet touch on the reddening cheek 

Was quite enough; 
No need to question, no need to speak. 

Then the gentle voice was heard, 

i Now I will try you again ! ' 
And the lesson was mastered, — every word t 

Was it not worth the pain ? 



148 Gbe fturneD Xesson. 

Was it not kinder the task to turn, 

Than to let it pass, 
As a lost, lost leaf that she did not learn ? 

Is it not often so, 

That we only learn in part, 
And the Master's testing-time may show 

That it was not quite ' by heart ' ? 
Then He gives, in His wise and patient grace, 

That lesson again 
With the mark still set in the self-same place. 

Only, stay by His side 

Till the page is really known. 
It may be we failed because we tried 

To learn it all alone, 
And now that He would not let us lose 

One lesson of love 
(For He knows the lossj, — can we refuse ? 

But oh ! how could we dream 

That we knew it all so well ! 
Reading so fluently, as we deem, 

What we could not even spell ! 
And oh ! how could we grieve once more 

That Patient One 
Who has turned so many a task before ! 

That waiting One, who now 

•Is letting us try again ; 
Watching us with the patient brow, 

That bore the wreath of pain ; 
Thoroughly teaching what He would teach, 

Line upon line, 
Thoroughly doing His work in each. 



5un£»a£ IRigbt. 149 

Then let our hearts * be still/ 

Though our task is turned to-day ; 
Oh let Him teach us what He will, 

In His own gracious way. 
Till, sitting only at Jesus* feet, 

As we learn each line 
The hardest is found all clear and sweet ! 



£unfca$ IRigbL 

REST him, O Father ! Thou didst send him 
forth 
With great and gracious messages of love ; 
But Thy ambassador is weary now, 
Worn with the weight of his high embassy. 
Now care for him as Thou hast cared for us 
In sending him ; and cause him to lie down 
In Thy fresh pastures, by Thy streams of peace. 
Let Thy left hand be now beneath his head, 
And Thine upholding right encircle him, 
And, underneath, the Everlasting arms 
Be felt in full support. So let him rest, 
Hushed like a little child, without one care; 
And so give Thy beloved sleep to-night. 

Rest him, dear Master ! He hath poured for us 
The wine of joy, and we have been refreshed. 
Now fill his chalice, give him sweet new draughts 



i5° B Song in tbe IFtfgbt* 

Of life and love, with Thine own hand ; be Thou 

His ministrant to-night; draw very near 

In all Thy tenderness and all Thy power. 

Oh speak to him ! Thou knowest how to speak 

A word in season to Thy weary ones, 

And he is weary now. Thou lovest him — 

Let Thy disciple lean upon Thy breast, 

And, leaning, gain new strengh to ' rise and shine/ 

Rest him, O loving Spirit! Let Thy calm 
Fall on his soul to-night. O holy Dove, 
Spread Thy bright wing above him, let him rest 
Beneath its shadow ; let him know afresh 
The infinite truth and might of Thy dear name — 
g Our Comforter ! ' As gentlest touch will stay 
The strong vibrations of a jarring chord, 
So lay Thy hand upon his heart, and still 
Each overstraining throb, each pulsing pain. 
Then, in the stillness, breathe upon the strings, 
And let thy holy music overflow 
With soothing power his listening, resting soul. 






a Sons in tbe IRigbt. 

[Written in severe pain, Sunday afternoon, October 8th, 1876, 
at the Pension Wengen, Alps.] 

I TAKE this pain, Lord Jesus, 
From Thine own hand, 
The strength to bear it bravely 
Thou wilt command. 



B Song in tbe IRigbt* 151 

I am too weak for effort, 

So let me rest, 
In hush of sweet submission, 

On Thine own breast. 

I take this pain, Lord Jesus, 

As proof indeed 
That Thou art watching closely 

My truest need ; 

That Thou, my Good Physician, 

Art watching still ; 
That all Thine own good pleasure 

Thou wilt fulfil. 

I take this pain, Lord Jesus ; 

What Thou dost choose 
The soul that really loves Thee 

Will not refuse. 

It is not for the first time 

I trust to-day ; 
For Thee my heart has never 

A trustless ' Nay ! ' 

I take this pain, Lord Jesus ; 

But what beside ? 
'Tis no unmingled portion 

Thou dost provide. 

In every hour of faintness 

My cup runs o'er 
With faithfulness and mercy, 

And love's sweet store. 



152 TSQbat will HJou Do witbout UMm? 

I take this pain, Lord Jesus, 

As Thine own gift ; 
And true though tremulous praises 

I now uplift. 

I am too weak to sing them, 

But Thou dost hear 
The whisper from the pillow, 

Thou art so near ! 

'Tis Thy dear hand, O Saviour, 

That presseth sore, 
The hand that bears the nail -prints 

For evermore. 

And now beneath its shadow. 

Hidden by Thee, 
The pressure only tells me 

Thou lovest me ! 



Wbat will JPou fc>o witbout 1bim ? 

T COULD not do without Him! 
-*- Jesus is more to me 
Than all the richest, fairest gifts 

Of earth could ever be. 
But the more I find Him precious — 

And the more I find Him true — 
The more I long for you to find 

What He can be to you. 



TObat will iou Do witbout Ibfm? 153 

You need not do without Him, 

For He is passing by, 
He is waiting to be gracious, 

Only waiting for your cry : 
He is waiting to receive you— 

To make you all His own ! 
Why will you do without Him, 

And wander on alone ? 

Why will you do without Him ? 

Is He not kind indeed ? 
Did He not die to save you? 

Is He not all you need ? 
Do you not want a Saviour? 

Do you not want a Friend? 
One who will love you faithfully, 

And love you to the end ? 

Why will you do without Him? 

The Word of God is true ! 
The world is passing to its doom — 

And you are passing too. 
It may be no to-morrow 

Shall dawn on you or me ; 
Why will you run the awful risk 

Of all eternity ? 

What will you do without Him, 

In the long and dreary day 
Of trouble and perplexity, 

When you do not know the way, 
And no one else can help you, 

And no one guides you right, 
And hope comes not with morning, 

And rest comes not with night ? 



iS4 Mbat will 3j?ou oo witbout 1bfm? 

You could not do without Him, 

If once He made you see 
The fetters that enchain you, 

Till He hath set you free. 
If once you saw the fearful load 

Of sin upon your soul ; 
The hidden plague that ends in death, 

Unless He makes you whole ! 

What will you do without Him, 

When death is drawing near? 
Without His love — the only love 

That casts out every fear ; 
When the shadow-valley opens, 

Unlighted and unknown, 
And the terrors of its darkness 

Must all be passed alone ! 

What will you do without Him, 

When the great white throne is set, 
And the Judge who never can mistake, 

And never can forget, — 
The Judge whom you have never here 

As Friend and Saviour sought, 
Shall summon you to give account 

Of deed and word and thought? 
What will you do without Him, 

When He hath shut the door, 
And you are left outside, because 

You would not come before ? 
When it is no use knocking, 

No use to stand and wait ; 
For the word of doom tolls through your heart 

That terrible < Too late !' 



TDdbat will iou Do witbout 1bim? 155 

You cannot do without Him ! 

There is no other name 
Ey which you ever can be saved, 

No way, no hope, no claim ! 
Without Him — everlasting loss 

Of love, and life, and light ! 
Without Him — everlasting woe, 

And everlasting night. 

But with Him — oh ! with Jesus I 

Are any words so blest ? 
With Jesus, everlasting joy 

And everlasting rest ! 
With Jesus— all the empty heart 

Filled with His perfect love ; 
With Jesus — perfect peace below, 

And perfect bliss above. 

Why should you do without Him ? 

It is not yet too late ; 
He has not closed the day of grace, 

He has not shut the gate. 
He calls you ! hush ! He calls you S 

He would not have you go 
Another step without Him, 

Because He loves you so. 
Why will you do without Him ? 

He calls and calls again — 
' Come unto Me ! Come unto Me !' 

Oh, shall He call in vain ? 
He wants to have you with Him ; 

Do you not want Him too? 
You cannot do without Him, 

And He wants — even you. 



156 Gbutcb /BMssfonan! jubilee 1fo£mn. 



ttburcb fllMseionar^ 3uWlee 1b\>mn. 

' He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.' 
-Isa. liii. II. 

REJOICE with Jesus Christ to-day, 
All ye who love His holy sway ! 
The travail of His soul is past, 
He shall be satisfied at last. 

Rejoice with Him, rejoice indeed ! 
For He shall see His chosen seed. 
But ours the trust, the grand employ, 
To work out this divinest joy. 

Of all His own He loseth none, 
They shall be gathered one by one ; 
He gathereth the smallest grain, 
His travail shall not be in vain. 

Arise and work ! arise and pray 
That He would haste the dawning day ! 
And let the silver trumpet sound, 
Wherever Satan's slaves are found. 

The vanquished foe shall soon be stilled, 
The conquering Saviour's joy fulfilled, 
Fulfilled in us, fulfilled in them, 
His crown, His royal diadem. 

Soon, soon our waiting eyes shall see 
The Saviour's mighty Jubilee ! 
His harvest joy is filling fast, 
He shall be satisfied at last. 



21 ibappE 1ftew Scar to lou! 157 



H 1bapp$ IRew Ji)ear to $ou ! 

NEW mercies, new blessings, new light on thy 
way ; 
New courage, new hope, and new strength for each 

day; 
New notes of thanksgiving, new chords of delight, 
New praise in the morning, new songs in the 

night ; 
New wine in thy chalice, new altars to raise ; 
New fruits for thy Master, new garments of praise; 
New gifts from His treasures, new smiles from His 

face ; 
New streams from the Fountain of infinite grace ; 
New stars for thy crown, and new tokens of love; 
New gleams of the glory that waits thee above ; 
New light of His countenance, full and unpriced ; 
All this be the joy of thy new life in Christ ! 



Bnotfoer JPeay* 

ANOTHER year is dawning ! 
Dear Master, let it be 
In working or in waiting, 
Another year with Thee, 



158 Bnotber gear. 

Another year of leaning 
Upon Thy loving breast, 

Of ever-deepening trustfulness, 
Of quiet, happy rest. 

Another year of mercies, 
Of faithfulness and grace ; 

Another year of gladness 
In the shining of Thy face. 

Another year of progress, 
Another year of praise ; 

Another year of proving 

Thy presence ' all the days.' 

Another year of service, 
Of witness for Thy love ; 

Another year of training 
For holier work above. 

Another year is dawning ! 

Dear Master, let it be 
On earth, or else in heaven, 

Another year for Thee ! 



Bevv gear's TKMsbes* 159 



mew gear's Mtebes, 



WHAT shall I wish thee? 
Treasures of earth ? 
Songs in the springtime, 

Pleasure and mirth ? 
Flowers on thy pathway, 

Skies ever clear ? 
Would this ensure thee 
A Happy New Year ? 

What shall I wish thee ? 

What can be found 
Bringing thee sunshine 

All the year round ? 
Where is the treasure, 

Lasting and dear, 
That shall ensure thee 

A Happy New Year? 

Faith that increaseth, 

Walking in light ; 
Hope that aboundeth, 

Happy and bright ; 
Love that is perfect, 

Casting out fear ; 
These shall ensure thee 

A Happy New Year. 



160 TOlbat Zhou WML 

Peace in the Saviour, 

Rest at His feet, 
Smile of His countenance 

Radiant and sweet, 
Joy in His presence ! 

Christ ever near ! 
This will ensure thee 

A Happy New Year ! 



'fll>O0t Bieeeeb fox lEver/ 

( Though the date of these lines is uncertain, they are chosen as a 
closing chord to her songs on earth.) 

THE prayer of many a day is all fulfilled, 
Only by full fruition stayed and stilled; 
You asked for blessing as your Father willed, 

Now He hath answered : ' Most blessed for 
ever!' 

Lost is the daily light of mutual smile, 
You therefore sorrow now a little while ; 
But floating down life's dimmed and lonely aisle 
Comes the clear music : ' Most blessed for ever !' 

From the great anthems of the Crystal Sea, 
Through the far vistas of Eternity, 
Grand echoes of the word peal on for thee, 
Sweetest and fullest : ' Most blessed for ever. 



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